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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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http://www.archive.org/details/aroundworldinsloOOsloc 



AROUND THE WORLD 
IN THE SLOOP SPRAY 



CAPTAIN SLOCUM. 



AROUND THE WORLD 
IN THE SLOOP SPRAY 

A GEOGRAPHICAL READER 

DESCRIBING CAPTAIN SLOCUM'S VOYAGE 

ALONE AROUND THE WORLD 



BY 

CAPTAIN JOSHUA SLOCUM 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUN 29 1903 

fl Copyright Entry 
Cuss H- XXc. No. 
COPY B. 






Copyright, 1903, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



« • , • » • • • r • 



THE CAXTON PRESS 
New YopK Cmr, U. S. A, 



PREFACE 

It was my good fortune, a short time ago, 
to be invited to the School of Pedagogy, in 
New York, to meet Dr. Edward R. Shaw. 
Dr. Shaw was in the midst of a lecture when I 
entered the room, reading from a famous book 
of the sea that he had edited for school uses. 
From this he turned to " Sailing Alone Around 
the World," which, to my surprise and delight, 
he quoted off the reel. 

Here I met a large-hearted man at the right 
moment. He read my mind, or how else could 
he perceive my desire to see the story of the 
Spray s voyage still more useful ? 

" With the leave of your publishers," said Dr. 
Shaw, "I will make the story of the Sprays 
voyage adaptable to school uses and will do it 
at once. Then we shall have a story of advent- 
ure and a lesson in geography all in one." 

Under his practical direction and with the 
kind permission of The Century Company this 
abridgment of ** Sailing Alone Around the 



vi Preface 

World " has been prepared. Whatever value 
it may have as a supplementary geographical 
reader is due to my friend, Dr. Shaw, whom, 
to my misfortune, I had found but to lose by 
his death. 

In launching the new literary packet I de- 
sire to commend it especially to the indulgence 
of children around and all over the world. 

J. s. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGB 

A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities — Youthful 
fondness for the sea — Master of the ship Northern Light — 
Loss of the Aquidneck — The gift of a ** ship "—The re- 
building of the Spray — Conundrums in regard to finance 
and calking — The launching of the Spray — A voyage around 
the world projected 3 

CHAPTER II 

The start — From Boston to Gloucester — Refitting for the 
voyage — Along the Maine coast — Yarmouth, Nova Scotia . 14 

CHAPTER III 

Good-by to the American coast — Sailing in a fog — Passing 
vessels — First sight of the Azores — At anchor in Fayal . 24 

CHAPTER IV 

Squally weather — Luxurious fare in the Azores — Sickness 
— Visit by one of Columbus's crew — Fresh turtle-steak — 
Arrival at Gibraltar — Quarantine 34 

CHAPTER V 

Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's 
tug — The Sprafs course changed from the Suez Canal to 
the Cape of Good Hope — A brush with pirates — A fortunate 
escape — Passing the Canary Islands — At the mercy of an 
African harmattan — The Cape Verde Islands — Arrival at 
Pernambuco ......... 47 



viii Contents 

CHAPTER VI 

PAGE 

Departure from Rio de Janeiro — The Spray ashore on the 
sands of Uruguay — The boy who found a sloop — The Spray 
floated — Courtesies from the British Consul at Maldonado — 
A warm greeting at Montevideo — A pleasant stay in Buenos 
Aires 6i 

CHAPTER VII 

Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires — The Spray submerged 
by a great wave— Fine weather — A stormy entrance to the 
Strait of Magellan— Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag 
of carpet-tacks — Experience with williwaws — Oil Cape Fro- 
ward — Pursued by Fuegian Indians In Fortescue Bay — 
Towed by a Chilian gunboat — Animal life in the Strait . 73 

CHAPTER VIII 

From Cape Pillar into the Pacific — In the grasp of a Cape 
Horn tempest — Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure — 
Reaching the Strait again by way of Cockburn Channel — 
The savages learn the use of carpet-tacks — A series of fierce 
williwaws — Again sailing westward . . . , .89 

CHAPTER IX 

Repairing the Spray^s sails — Savages again — An obstrep- 
erous anchor — An encounter with Black Pedro — A visit to 
the steamship Colombia — On the defensive against a fleet of 
canoes — A record of voyages through the strait . . . loi 

CHAPTER X 

Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm — A defective 
sheet-rope places the Spray in peril — The Spray as a target 
for a Fuegian arrow— The island of Allan Eric — Again in 
the open Pacific — The run to. the island of Juan Fernandez 
—An absentee king— At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage . • 115 



Contents ix 

CHAPTER XI 

PAGE 

The islanders at Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee 
doughnuts — The beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm — The 
mountain monument to Alexander Selkirk — A stroll with 
the children of the island— Westward ho ! with a friendly 
gale — A month's free sailing with the Southern Cross and 
the sun for guides—Sighting the Marquesas — Experience in 
reckoning .......... 124 

CHAPTER XII 

Seventy-two days without a port — Whales and birds — A 
peep into the Spray^s galley — Flying-fish for breakfast — A 
welcome at Apia — A visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Steven- 
son ........... 132 

CHAPTER XIII 

Good-by to friends at Vailima — The yachts of Sydney — 
A ducking on the Spray — Commodore Foy presents the 
sloop with a new suit of sails — On to Melbourne — A shark 
that proved to be valuable — A change of course . . . 136 

CHAPTER XIV 

Cruising round Tasmania — An inspection of the Spray for 
safety at Devonport — Again at Sydney — Northward bound 
for Torres Strait — An amateur shipwreck — Friends on the 
Australian coast — Perils of a coral sea . . . "147 

CHAPTER XV 

Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland — A happy escape 
from a coral reef — An American pearl -fisher man — ^Jubilee 
at Thursday Island — Sailing in the Arafura Sea — Specimen 
pages from the Spray^s log — Across the Indian Ocean — 
Christmas Island , , , , , , , .156 



X Contents 

CHAPTER XVI 

PAGE 

Three hours' steering in twenty-three days — Arrival at the 
Keeling Cocos Islands — A curious chapter of social history — 
A welcome from the children of the islands — Cleaning and 
painting the Spray on the beach — A Mohammedan blessing 
for a pot of jam — Keeling as a paradise — A risky advent- 
ure in a small boat — Away to Rodriguez — Taken for Anti- 
christ — The governor calms the fears of the people — A lect- 
ure — A convent in the hills . . . . . .164 

CHAPTER XVII 

A clean bill of health at Mauritius — A newly discovered 
plant named in honor of the Sprafs skipper — A bivouac on 
deck — A warm reception at Durban — Three wise Boers seek 
proof of the flatness of the earth — Leaving South Africa . 175 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Rounding the ** Cape of Storms " in olden time — A rough 
Christmas — The Spray ties up for a three months' rest at 
Cape Town — A railway trip to the Transvaal — President 
Kruger's odd definition of the Spray^s voyage — His terse 
sayings — Distinguished guests on the Spray — Cocoanut fibre 
as a padlock — Courtesies from the admiral of the Queen's 
navy — Off for St. Helena — Land in sight . . . .184 

CHAPTER XIX 

In the isle of Napoleon's exile — A guest in the ghost- 
room at Plantation House — An excursion to historic Long- 
wood — Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it — The Spray^s 
ill-luck with animals — Ascension Island . . . 193 

CHAPTER XX 

In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil — 
All at sea regarding the Spanish- American War — An ex- 
change of signals with the battle-ship Oregon — Off Dreyfus's 



Contents xi 

PAGE 

prison on Devil's Island — Reappearance to the Spray of the 
north star — The light on Trinidad — A charming introduction 
to Grenada — Talks to friendly auditors .... 200 

CHAPTER XXI 

Clearing for home — In the calm belt — A sea covered with 
sargasso — The jibstay parts in a gale — Welcomed by a tor- 
nado off Fire Island — A change of plan — Arrival at New- 
port — End of a cruise of over forty- six thousand miles — The 
Spray again at Fairhaven 208 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Captain SlOCUM Frontispiece 



FACING 
PAGE 



Plan of the After Cabin of the Spray ■. . 8 

** It'll crawl!" . 12 

The Spray at Anchor off Gibraltar ... 42 

A Double Surprise 66 ^ 

Salving Wreckage 112 

A Brush with Fuegians 118 / 

Stevenson's House at Vailima 134 -^ 

The Shark on the Deck of the Spray . .144 
The Spray 150 

From a photograph taken in Australian waters. 

Captain Slocum, Sir Alfred Milner (with the 
tall hat), and Colonel Sanderson, M.P., 
ON THE Bow of the Spray, at Cape Town 188 
The Spra f in a Storm off New York . . .212 
Map showing the Sprays Course At end of volume ^ 



ZUl 



AROUND THE WORLD IN THE 
SLOOP SPRAY 



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CHAPTER I 

A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities — Youthful fondness 
for the sea — Master of the ship Northern Light — Loss of the 
Aquidneck — The gift of a " ship " — The rebuilding of the 
Spray — Conundrums in regard to finance and calking — The 
launching of the Spray — A voyage around the world pro- 
jected. 

In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a maritime 
province, there is a ridge called North Moun- 
tain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side 
and the fertile Annapolis valley on the other. 
On the northern slope of the range grows the 
hardy spruce-tree, well adapted for ship-tim- 
bers, of which many vessels of all classes have 
been built. The people of this coast, hardy, 
robust, and strong, are disposed to compete in 
the world's commerce, and it is nothing against 
the master mariner if the birthplace mentioned 
on his certificate is Nova Scotia. I was born in 
a cold spot, on coldest North Mountain, on a 
cold February 20, though I am a citizen of the 
United States — a naturalized Yankee, if it may 
be said that Nova Scotians are not Yankees in 

3 



4 Around the World 

the truest sense of the word. On both sides 
my family were sailors; and if any Slocum 
should be found not seafaring, he will show at 
least an inclination to whittle models of boats 
and dream of voyages. 

As for myself, the wonderful sea charmed me 
from the first. At the age of eight I had al- 
ready been afloat along with other boys on the 
bay, with chances greatly in favor of being 
drowned. We knew nothing about the ebb 
and flow of the tides, but sailed out joyously on 
a current that drifted us down the bay. A long 
way down we managed in some way to land, and 
a farmer seeing us very kindly yoked his oxen 
to our boat and hauled it out of the tide-way, 
for it was found that we could not row back 
against the strong ebb tide. As we returned 
home through the fields we saw the shore laid 
bare for a great distance. It was a real advent- 
ure and here I picked up my first sea-shell. As 
the tide ebbed I wondered where the water all 
went and if the bay would run dry ; since that 
time, and farther up the Bay of Fiindy, I have 
seen the "- flats," at low water, dry for the space 
of many square miles. Here the tide sometimes 
rises and falls seventy feet, and the flood comes 
up the bay so rapidl}^ that it forms a wall of 
water as it advances, called a bore. 



171 the Sloop ''Spray'' 5 

I never got away from the sound of the in- 
spiring- sea. 

When a lad I filled the post of cook on a 
fishing-schooner ; but I was not long in the 
galley, for the crew mutinied at the appearance 
of my first duff, and threw me out of that be- 
fore I had a chance to shine among pots and 
pans. The next step toward the goal of hap- 
piness found me before the mast in a full-rigged 
ship, along with a boy neighbor of my own age 
for " chum," bound on a foreign voyage. Here 
I got my first taste of the roughest side of sea 
life. The crew, I thought, was a very rough 
one, and I did not find out that the captain was 
a kind man, at heart, till I fell ill and wanted a 
friend. 

As for the mate of the ship, he roared like a 
lion whenever he appeared, and we jumped at 
the sound of his voice. The second mate, how- 
ever, was lax in discipline, and there was greater 
safety for the ship and all hands when the first 
mate was on deck, as, for all his sternness, he 
was a kind man at heart. 

The voyage began at St. John, N. B., and 
my " chum " and I, before the ship cleared 
Partridge Island, had won records as the 
only members of the crew, save one, suffi- 
ciently sober to take the helm. Our coming 



6 Around the World 

on board was a serious business and we 
meant it. 

My friend and I joined the ship from a small 
fishing-schooner and had hardly seen a case of 
drunkenness in our lives. 

Nothing- could have been more revolting than 
the condition of the men we were to sail with. 

The captain and his mate were on deck all 
night, and with the two fisher boys, ourselves, 
at the helm took the ship out of the Bay and 
down by the Menan Islands past rocks and 
ledges to port and starboard in a thick fog. 
The palm was ours from that moment and was 
easily held. 

It was one of my proudest moments when 
the Irish pilot who boarded us off Dublin, 
where the ship was bound, called for a man 
who could steer her '' decently into port," and 
the mate sent me to the helm, my chum being 
in the second mate's watch, then off duty. 

I could not have succeeded better in any 
ship, after all, and I spent four years in succes- 
sion, now in one ship and now in another, 
sailing the Atlantic Ocean to my heart's con- 
tent. I came "over the bows," and not in 
through the cabin windows, to the command 
of a ship. 

My best command was that of the magnifi- 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 7 

cent ship Northern Light, of which I was part 
owner. I had a right to be proud of her, for at 
that time — in the eighties — she was one of the 
finest vessels afloat. I sailed her to China and 
Japan, to the Philippine Islands and to Liver- 
pool and New York. 

The cares of a shipmaster are not a few, still 
responsibilities did not weigh on me and I had 
success. Above all I have it to say that in com- 
mand twenty and odd years I never lost a man 
at sea. After commanding the Northern Light 
I owned and sailed the Aquidneck, a little bark 
which of all man's handiwork seemed to me 
the nearest to perfection of beauty, and which 
in speed, when the wind blew, asked no favors 
of steamers. I had been nearly twenty years 
a shipmaster when I quit her deck on the coast 
of Brazil, where she was wrecked. 

My voyages were all foreign. I sailed as 
freighter and trader principally to China, Aus- 
tralia, and Japan, and among the Spice Islands. 
For a number of years San Francisco was my 
home port, to which I occasionally returned. 
Mine was not the sort of life to make one long 
to retire to the land, the customs and ways of 
which I had finally almost forgotten. And so 
when times for freighters got bad, as at last 
they did, and I tried to quit the sea, what was 



8 Around the World 

there for an old sailor to do ? I was born in the 
breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps 
few men have studied it, neglecting all else. 
Next in attractiveness, after seafaring, came 
ship-building. I longed to be master in both 
professions, and in a small way, in time, I ac- 
complished my desire. From the decks of stout 
ships in the worst gales I had made calcula- 
tions as to the size and sort of ship safest for all 
weather and all seas. Thus the voyage which 
I am now to narrate was a natural outcome not 
only of my love of adventure, but of my life- 
long experience. 

One midwinter day of 1892, in Boston, as I 
was thinking whether I should apply for a com- 
mand, and again eat my bread and butter on 
the sea, or go to work at the shipyard, I met an 
old acquaintance, a whaling-captain, who said: 
"Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a ship. 
But," he added, '' she needs some repairs." The 
captain's terms, when fully explained, were more 
than satisfactory to me. They included all the 
help I would require to fit the craft for sea. I 
was only too glad to accept, for I had already 
found that I could not obtain work in the ship- 
yard near my home without first paying fifty 
dollars to a society, and as for a ship to com- 
mand — there were not enough ships to go 



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Cn.TVj'ovrr.i; Xif.t- 



in the Sloop ''Spray''' g 

round. Nearly all our tall vessels had been cut 
down for coal-barges, and were being towed 
by the nose from port to port, while many 
worthy captains had betaken themselves to 
Sailors' Snug Harbor, there to end their days. 

The next day I landed at Fairhaven, opposite 
New Bedford, and found that my friend had 
something of a joke on me. For seven years 
the joke had been on him. The " ship " proved 
to be a very old sloop called the Spray, which 
the neighbors declared had been built in the 
year 1. She was propped up in a field, some 
distance from salt water, and was covered with 
canvas. The people of Fairhaven, I hardly 
need say, are thrifty and observant. For seven 
years they had asked, *' I wonder what Captain 
Pierce is going to do with the old Spray?'' 
The day I appeared there was talk on every 
hand ; at last someone had come and was actu- 
ally at work on the old Spray. " Breaking her 
up, I suppose ? " it was asked. " No ; going to 
rebuild her," was the reply. Great was the 
amazement. " Will it pay? " was the question 
which for a year or more I answered by de- 
claring that I would make it pay. 

My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a 
keel, and Farmer Howard, for a small sum of 
money, hauled in this and enough timbers for 



lO Around the World 

the frame of the new vessel. I fitted up a steam- 
box and a pot for a boiler. The timbers for 
ribs, being straight saplings, were dressed and 
steamed till supple, and then bent over a log, 
where they were secured till set. Something 
tangible appeared every day to show for my 
labor, and the neighbors made the work socia- 
ble. It was a great day in the Spray shipyard 
when her new stem was set up and fastened to 
the new keel. Whaling-captains came from far 
to survey it. With one voice they pronounced 
it "A 1," and in their opinion "strong enough 
to smash ice." The oldest captain shook my 
hand warmly when the, breast-hooks were put 
in, declaring that he could see no reason why 
the Spray should not capture whales yet off the 
coast of Greenland. The much-esteemed stem- 
piece was from the butt of the toughest kind of 
a pasture oak. Better timber for a ship than this 
pasture white oak never grew. The breast- 
hooks, as well as all the ribs, were of this wood, 
and were steamed and bent into shape as re- 
quired. It was hard upon March when I began 
work in earnest ; the weather w^as cold ; still, 
there were plenty of inspectors about to give 
me advice. 

The seasons came quickly while I worked. 
Hardly were the ribs of the sloop up before 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' ii 

apple-trees were in bloom. The daisies and 
the cherries came soon after. From the deck 
of the new craft I could put out my hand and 
pick cherries. The planks for the new vessel, 
which I soon came to put on, were of Georgia 
pine, an inch and a half thick. The operation 
of putting- them on was tedious, but it was my 
purpose to make my vessel stout and strong. 

Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that a vessel re- 
paired all out of the old until she is entirely 
new is still the same vessel. The Spray changed 
her being so gradually that it was hard to say 
at what point the old died or the new took 
birth, and it was no matter, for she was still the 
Spray. There was one deck-inclosure over the 
opening of the main hatch, six feet by six, for a 
cooking-galley, and another farther aft, about 
ten feet by twelve, for a cabin. Both of these 
rose about three feet above the deck, and were 
sunk sufficiently into the hold to afford head- 
room. In the spaces along the sides of the 
cabin, under the deck, I arranged a berth to 
sleep in, and shelves for small storage, not for- 
getting a place for the medicine-chest. In the 
midship-hold, that is, the space between cabin 
and galley, under the deck, was room for pro- 
vision of water, salt beef, etc., ample for many 
months. 



12 Around the World 

The hull of my vessel being now put to- 
gether as strongly as wood and iron could make 
her, and the various rooms partitioned off, I 
set about calking the seams. When the calk- 
ing was finished, two coats of copper paint were 
put on the bottom, two of white lead on the 
topsides and bulwarks. The rudder was then 
shipped and painted, and on the following day 
the Spray was launched. As she rode at her 
ancient, rust-eaten anchor, she sat on the water 
like a swan. 

The Spray s dimensions were, when finished, 
thirty-six feet nine inches long, over all, four- 
teen feet two inches wide, and four feet two 
inches deep in the hold, her tonnage being nine 
tons net and twelve and seventy-one hundredths 
tons gross. 

Then the mast, a New Hampshire black 
spruce, was fitted, and the rigging necessary 
for a short cruise. Sails were bent, and away 
she flew with my friend Captain Pierce, who had 
given the promised assistance, and me, across 
Buzzard's Bay on a trial-trip — all right. The 
only thing that now worried my friends along 
the beach w^as, " Will she pay ? " The cost of my 
new vessel was $553.62 for materials, and thir- 
teen months of my own labor. I was several 
months more than that at Fairhaven, for I 



in the Sloop '' Spray'^ 13 

got work now and then farther down the har- 
bor, on whale-ships fitting out for sea, and that 
kept me the overtime. At this port I did not 
have to pay for the privilege of working in a 
shipyard. 

I spent a season in my new craft fishing on 
the coast, but with little success, and the boast 
that I would " make it pay," at least in this 
enterprise, became a problem with me. I was 
unfitted for even this rough industry ; condi- 
tions had changed since the day when I was 
a lad hauling cod, and I had myself changed. 

I reeled up my lines with a sense of one more 
defeat, but with no feeling that I should become 
a hulk. I decided, instead, on the one enterprise, 
still within my reach, which would be the most 
gratifying and profitable to me, and this was a 
voyage alone around the world. I should, on 
such a cruise as this, gain a better knowledge 
of our planet and of the peoples I would meet. 
With these fascinating impressions fixed firmly 
upon my mind I moored the Spray in winter 
quarters in Boston, and little by little, while 
there, I fitted for the voyage. All alone I 
would at least contemplate the wide, wide sea. 



14 Around the World 



CHAPTER II 

The start — From Boston to Gloucester — Refitting for the voyage 
— Along the Maine Coast — Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. 

At last the time arrived to set out, and on 
the morning of April 24, 1895, as the wind was 
fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and 
filled away. The twelve-o'clock whistles were 
blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under 
full sail. A short stretch was made up the har- 
bor on the port tack, then coming about she 
stood seaward, with her boom well off to port, 
and swung past the ferries with lively heels, 
her flag at the peak throwing its folds clear. 
A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step 
was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt that 
there could be no turning back, and that I was 
engaging in an adventure the meaning of which 
I thoroughly understood. I had taken little 
advice from anyone, for I had a right to my 
own opinions in matters pertaining to the sea. 
That the best of sailors might do worse than 
even I alone was impressed upon me not a 
league from Boston docks, where a great steam- 
ship, fully manned, officered, and piloted, lay 



in the Sloop '' Spray '^ 15 

stranded and broken. She was broken com- 
pletely in two over a ledge. So in the first 
hour of my lone voyage I had proof that the 
Spray could at least do better than this full- 
handed steamship, for I was already farther on 
my voyage than she and had abundance of 
energy to go on. " Take warning, Spray, and 
have a care still," I uttered aloud to my bark. 

The wind freshened, and the Spray rounded 
Deer Island light at the rate of seven knots. 

The day was perfect, the sunlight clear and 
strong. Every particle of water thrown into 
the air became a gem, and the Spray, bounding 
ahead, snatched necklace after necklace from 
the sea, and as often threw them away. We 
have all seen miniature rainbows about a ship's 
prow, but the Spray flung out a bow of her own 
that day, such as I had never seen before. Her 
good angel had embarked on the voyage ; I so 
read it in the sea. 

Bold Nahant was soon abeam, then Marble- 
head was put astern. Other vessels were out- 
ward bound, but none of them passed the Spray 
flying along on her course. I heard the clank- 
ing of the dismal bell on Norman's Woe as we 
went by ; and the reef where the schooner 
Hesperus"^ struck I passed close aboard. The 

* See Longfellow's poem. 



1 6 Around the World 

"bones'* of a wreck tossed up lay bleaching on 
the shore abreast. The wind still freshening, I 
partly lowered the mainsail to ease the sloop's 
helm, for I could hardly hold her before it with 
the whole mainsail set. A schooner ahead of 
me lowered all sail and ran into port under 
bare poles, the wind being fair. As the Spray 
brushed by the stranger, I saw that some of his 
sails were gone, and much broken canvas hung 
in his rigging, from the effects of a squall. 

I made for the cove, a lovely branch of 
Gloucester's fine harbor, again to look the 
Spray over and again to weigh the voyage and 
my feelings. The bay was feather- white as my 
little vessel tore in, smothered in foam. It was 
my first experience of coming into port alone, 
with a craft of any size, and in among shipping. 
Old fishermen ran down to the wharf for which 
the Spray was heading, thinking she would 
strike it and stave her bows in. I hardly know 
how a calamity was averted, but with my heart 
in my mouth, almost, I let go the wheel, stepped 
quickly forward, and hauled down the jib. 
The sloop naturally rounded into the wind, 
and shooting ahead just a little, laid her cheek 
against a mooring-pile at the windward cor- 
ner of the wharf, so quietly, after all, that she 
would not have broken an ^^z- Very leisurely 



in the Sloop ''Spray'" 17 

I passed a rope around the post, and she was 
moored. Then a cheer came to me from the 
little crowd on the wharf. ^' You could n't have 
done it better," cried an old skipper, ''if you 
weighed a ton ! " 

I remained in Gloucester about two weeks, 
fitting out with the various articles for the 
voyage most readily obtained there. The own- 
ers of the wharf where I lay, and of many fish- 
ing-vessels, put on board a great quantity of 
dry codfish and also a barrel of oil to calm 
the waves. They were old skippers them- 
selves, and took a great interest in the voyage. 
They also made the Spray a present of a " fish- 
erman's own " lantern, which I found would 
throw light a great distance round. Indeed, a 
ship that would run another down having such 
a good light aboard would be capable of run- 
ning into a light-ship. 

For a boat to take along, I made shift to cut 
a castaway dory in two athwartships, boarding 
up the end where it was cut. This half-dory I 
could hoist in and out easily. A whole dory 
would be heavy and awkward to handle alone. 
Manifestly there was not room on deck for 
more than the half of this boat, which, after all, 
was better than no boat at all, and was large 
enough for one man. I perceived, moreover, 



1 8 Around the World 

that this newly arranged craft would answer 
for a washing-machine when placed athwart- 
ships on deck, and also for a bath-tub. 

The want of a chronometer for the voyage 
was all that now worried me. In our modern 
notions of navigation it is supposed that a 
mariner cannot find his way without one ; and 
I had myself drifted into this way of thinking. 
My old chronometer, a good one, had been 
long in disuse. It would cost fifteen dollars to 
clean and rate it. Fifteen dollars ! For suffi- 
cient reasons I left that timepiece at home. I 
had the great lantern, and a lady in Boston sent 
me the price of a large two-burner cabin lamp, 
which lighted the cabin at night, and by some 
small contriving served for a stove through the 
day. 

Being thus refitted I was once more ready 
for sea, and on May 7 the Spray was again 
under way. 

The weather was mild on the day of my de- 
parture from Gloucester. On the point ahead, 
as the Spray stood out of the cove, was a lively 
picture, for the front of a tall factory was a 
flutter of handkerchiefs and caps. Pretty faces 
peered out of the windows from the top to the 
bottom of the building, all smiling bon voyage. 
Some hailed me to know where away and why 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 19 

alone. Why ? When I made as if to stand in, 
a hundred pairs of arms reached out, and said 
come, but the shore was dangerous ! The sloop 
worked out of the bay against a light southwest 
wind, and about noon squared away off Eastern 
Point, receiving at the same time a hearty sa- 
lute — the last of many kindnesses to her at 
Gloucester. The wind freshened off the point, 
and skipping along smoothly, the Spray was 
soon off Thatcher's Island lights. Thence shap- 
ing her course east, by compass, to go north of 
Cashes Ledge and the Amen Rocks, I sat and 
considered the matter all over again, and asked 
myself once more whether it were best to sail 
beyond the ledge and rocks at all. I had only 
said that I would sail round the world in the 
Spray, '' dangers of the sea excepted," but I 
must have said it very much in earnest. The 
contract with myself seemed to bind me, and 
so I sailed on. Toward night I hauled the 
sloop to the wind, and baiting a hook, sounded 
for bottom-fish, in thirty fathoms of water, on 
the edge of Cashes Ledge. With fair success 
I hauled till dark, landing on deck three cod, 
two haddocks, one hake, and, best of all, a small 
halibut, all plump and spry. This, I thought, 
would be the place to take in a good stock 
of provisions above what I already had ; so I 



20 Around the World 

put out a sea-anchor that would hold her head 
to windward. The current being southwest, 
against the wind, I felt quite sure I would find 
the Spray still on the bank or near it in the 
morning. Then wrapping the cable with canvas 
to prevent its chafing in the hawse, and putting 
my great lantern in the rigging, I lay down, 
for the first time at sea alone, not to sleep, but 
to doze and to dream. 

I had read somewhere of a fishing-schooner 
hooking her anchor into a whale, and being 
towed a long way and at great speed. This 
was exactly what happened to the Spray — in 
my dream ! I could not shake it off entirely 
when I awoke and found that it was the wind 
blowing and the heavy sea now running that 
had disturbed my short rest. A scud was fly- 
ing across the moon. A storm was brewing; 
indeed, it was already stormy. I reefed the 
sails, then hauled in my sea-anchor, and setting 
what canvas the sloop could carry, headed her 
away for Monhegan light, which she made be- 
fore daylight on the morning of the 8th. The 
wind being free, I ran on into Round Pond har- 
bor, which is a little port east from Pemaquid, 
on the coast of Maine. Here I rested a day, 
while the wind rustled among the pine-trees on 
shore. But the following day was fine enough, 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 21 

and I put to sea, first writing up my log* from 
Cape Ann, not omitting a full account of my 
adventure with the whale. 

The Spray, heading east, sailed along the 
coast among many islands and over a tranquil 
sea. At evening of this day, May 10, she came 
up with a considerable island on the Maine 
coast, which I shall always think of as the Isl- 
and of Frogs, for the Spray was charmed by a 
million voices. From the Island of Frogs we 
made for the Island of Birds, called Gannet 
Island, and sometimes Gannet Rock, whereon 
is a bright, intermittent light, which flashed fit- 
fully across the Spray s deck as she coasted 
along under its light and shade. Thence shap- 
ing a course for Briar's Island, I came among 
vessels the following afternoon on the western 
fishing-grounds, and next morning found me in 
Westport Harbor, Nova Scotia, where I had 
spent eight years of my life as a lad. 

I was delighted to reach Westport. 

The very stones on Briar's Island I was glad 
to see again, and I knew them all. The little 
shop around the corner, which for thirty-five 
years I had not seen, was the same, except that 
it looked a deal smaller. It wore the same shin- 

* A record of the directions and distances sailed, as well as the 
happenings on board worth setting down. 



22 Around the World 

gles — I was sure of it; for did I not Know the 
roof where we boys, night after night, hunted 
for the skin of a black cat, to be taken on a 
dark night, to make a plaster for a poor lame 
man? Lowry the tailor lived there then. In 
his day he was fond of the gun. He always 
carried his powder loose in the tail pocket of 
his coat. He usually had in his mouth a short 
pipe ; but in an evil moment he put it, lighted, 
into his pocket among the powder. 

At Briar's Island I overhauled the Spray 
once more and tried her seams, but found them 
tight and secure. Bad weather and strong head 
winds prevailing outside, I was in no hurry to 
round Cape Sable. I made a short excursion 
with some friends to St. Mary's Bay, an old 
cruising-ground, and back to the island. Then 
I sailed, putting into Yarmouth the following 
day on account of fog and head wind. I spent 
some days pleasantly enough in Yarmouth, 
took in some butter for the voyage, also a bar- 
rel of potatoes, filled six barrels of water, and 
stowed all under deck. At Yarmouth, too, I 
got a tin clock, the only timepiece I carried on 
the whole voyage. 

This dollar clock was not, of course, a time- 
piece to be relied on at all for longitude at sea. 
Therefore I relied, for the most part, on what 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 23 

is called " dead reckoning," that is, the account 
of the courses and the distance run on each 
course. The sum of these being figured out 
each day at noon, and written in the log book 
or marked on the chart, or both, was approxi- 
mately the Spray s position. 



24 Around the World 



CHAPTER III 

Good-by to the American coast — Sailing in a fog — Passing vessels 
— First sight of the Azores — At anchor in Fayal. 

I NOW stowed all my goods securely, for the 
boisterous Atlantic was before me, and I sent 
the topmast down, knowing that the Spray 
would be the wholesomer with it on deck. 
Then I set the lanyards taut, and saw that the 
other rigging was secure, also that the boat was 
lashed, for even in summer one may meet with 
bad weather in crossing the ocean. 

In fact, many weeks of bad weather had pre- 
vailed. On July I, however, after a rude gale, 
the wind came out nor' west and clear, propi- 
tious for a good run. On the following day, 
the head sea having gone down, I sailed from 
Yarmouth, and let go my last hold on America. 
The log of my first day on the Atlantic in the 
Spray reads briefly: ''9:30 A. M. sailed from 
Yarmouth. 4:30 P. M. Cape Sable, north 
latitude 43° 24^ west longitude 65° 36', was 
passed at a distance of three cables. The sloop 
making eight knots. Fresh breeze N. W." 
Before the sun went down I was taking my 



in the Sloop ''^ Spray'' 25 

supper of strawberries and tea in smooth water 
under the lee of the land, which the Spray now 
leisurely skirted along. 

At noon on July 3 Ironbound Island was 
abeam. The Spray was again at her best. A 
large schooner came out of Liverpool, Nova 
Scotia, this morning, steering eastward. The 
Spray put her out of sight astern in five hours. 
At 6:45 P- M. I was in close under Chebucto 
Head light near Halifax Harbor. I set my fla^ 
and squared away, taking my departure from 
George's Island before dark to sail east of Sable 
Island. There are many beacon lights along 
the coast. Sambro, the Rock of Lamentations, 
carries a noble light, which, however, the White 
Star liner Atlantic^ on the night of her terrible 
disaster, did not see. I watched light after 
light sink astern as I sailed into the unbounded 
sea, till Sambro, the last of them all, was below 
the horizon. The Spray was then alone, and 
sailing on, she held her course. July 4, at 
6 A. M., the weather being threatening, I put in 
double reefs, and at 8:30 A. M., promising fine 
weather, I turned out all reefs. At 9:40 P. M. I 
raised the sheen only of the light on the west 
end of Sable Island, which may also be called 
the Island of Tragedies by reason of its great 
number of wrecks and great loss of life. Scarcely 



26 Around the World 

a spot can be found on its outer shore where 
there has not been a wreck. The fog, which 
till this moment had held off, now lowered over 
the sea like a pall. I was in a world of fog, 
shut off from the universe. I did not see any 
more of the light. By the lead, which I cast 
often, I found that a little after midnight I was 
passing the east point of the island, and should 
soon be clear of dangers of land and shoals. 
The wind was holding free, though it was from 
the foggy point, south-southwest. It is said 
that within a few years Sable Island has been 
reduced from forty miles in length to twenty, 
and that of three lighthouses built on it since 
1880, two have been washed away and the third 
will soon be engulfed. 

On the evening of July 5, the Spray^ after 
having sailed all day over a lumpy sea, dropped 
into a smooth lane, heading southeast, and mak- 
ing about eight knots, her very best work. I 
crowded on sail to cross the track of the liners 
without loss of time, and to reach as soon as 
possible the friendly Gulf Stream. The fog 
lifting before night, I was afforded a look at the 
sun just as it was touching the sea. I watched 
it go down and out of sight. Then I turned 
my face eastward, and there, apparently at the 
very end of the bowsprit, was the smiling full 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 27 

moon rising out of the sea. Neptune himself 
coming over the bows could not have startled 
me more. " Good evening, sir," I cried ; *' I'm 
glad to see you." Many a long talk since then 
I have had with the man in the moon ; he had 
my confidence on the voyage. 

About midnight the fog shut down again 
denser than before. One could almost " stand 
on it." It continued so for a number of days, 
the wind increasing to a gale. The waves rose 
high, but I had a good ship. Still, in the dis- 
mal fog I felt myself drifting into loneliness, an 
insect on a straw in the midst of the elements. I 
lashed the helm, and my vessel held her course, 
and while she sailed I slept. 

The loneliness of my state wore off when the 
gale was high and I found much work to do. 
When fine weather returned, then came the 
sense of solitude, which I could not shake off. 
I used my voice often, at first giving some or- 
der about the affairs of a ship, for I had been 
told that from disuse I would lose my speech. 
When the sun was on the meridian I called 
aloud, " Eight bells," after the custom on a 
ship at sea. Again from my cabin I cried to 
an imaginary man at the helm, " How does she 
head, there?" and again, "Is she on her 
course?" But getting no reply, I was re- 



28 Around the World 

minded the more palpably of my condition. 
My voice sounded hollow on the empty air, and 
I dropped the practice. 

July 10, eight days at sea, the Spray was 
twelve hundred miles east of Cape Sable, north 
lat. 43° 24^ west long. 65° 36'. One hundred 
and fifty miles a day for so small a vessel must 
be considered good sailing. It was the great- 
est run the Spray ever made before or since in 
so few days. On the evening of July 14, in 
better humor than ever before, all hands cried, 
*' Sail ho !" The sail was a barkentine, three 
points on the weather bow, hull down. Then 
came the night. My ship was sailing along 
now without attention to the helm. The wind 
was south ; she was heading east. Her sails 
were trimmed like the sails of the nautilus. 
They drew steadil}^ all night. I went frequently 
on deck, but found all well. The merry breeze 
kept on from the south. Early in the morning 
of the 15th the Spray was close aboard the 
stranger, which proved to be a Spanish vessel, 
twenty-three days from Philadelphia, bound for 
Vigo, Spain. A lookout from his masthead had 
spied the Spray the evening before. The cap- 
tain, when I came near enough, threw a line to 
me and sent a bottle of wine across slung by 
the neck, and very good wine it was. He also 



in the Sloop ^' Spray ''^ 29 

sent his card, which bore the name of Juan* 
Gantes. I think he was a good man. But 
when I asked him to report me " all well " (the 
Spray passing him in a lively manner), he 
hauled his shoulders above his head and made 
for his cabin.. I did not see him again. By 
sundown he was as far astern as he had been 
ahead the evening before. 

There was now less and less monotony. On 
July 16 the wind was northwest and clear, the 
sea smooth, and a large bark, hull down, came 
in sight on the lee bow, and at 2:30 P. M. I 
spoke the stranger. She was the bark Java of 
Glasgow, from Peru for Queenstown for orders. 
The wind had fallen light ; \\\q Java was heavy 
and foul, making poor headway, Avhile the 
Spray, with a great mainsail bellying even to 
light winds, was just skipping along as nimbly 
as one could wish. " How long has it been 
calm about here T roared the captain of the 
Java, as I came within hail of him. " Don't 
know, captain !" I shouted back as loud as I 
could bawl. " I have n't been here long." At 
this the mate on the forecastle smiled. " I left 
Cape Sable fourteen days ago," I added. (I 
was now well across toward the Azores.) 
" Mate," he roared to his chief ofi&cer — ** mate, 

* Pronounced Whan. 



30 Around the World 

come here and listen to the Yankee's yarn. 
Haul down the flag, mate, haul down the flag !" 
In the best of humor we parted company. 

The acute pain of solitude experienced at 
first never returned. I had penetrated a mys- 
tery, and, by the way, I had sailed through a 
fog. I had met Neptune in his wrath, but he 
found that I had not treated him with contempt, 
and so he suffered me to go on. 

In the log for July i8, there is this entry: 
" Fine weather, wind south-southwest. Por- 
poises gamboling all about. The S. S. Olympia 
passed at 11:30 A. M., in north lat. 40° 10', west 
long. 34° 50'." 

There were no porpoises at all along with 
the Olympia ! Porpoises always prefer sailing- 
ships. 

Land ho ! On the morning of July 19, I saw 
a mystic dome like a mountain of silver alone 
in the sea ahead. The land was completely hid- 
den by a white, glistening haze that shone in 
the sun like polished silver, but I felt quite sure 
that it was *Flores Island. At half-past four 
p. M. it was abeam. The haze in the meantime 
had disappeared. Flores is one hundred and 
seventy-four miles from Fayal, and although it 
is a high island, it remained many years undis- 

♦ Read Tennyson's Ballad of the Revenge. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 31 

covered after the principal group of the islands 
had been colonized. 

Early on the morning of July 20 I saw Pico 
looming above the clouds on the starboard bow. 
Lower lands burst forth as the sun burned 
awa}^ the morning fog, and island after island 
came into view. As I approached nearer, cul- 
tivated fields appeared, "and oh, how green the 
corn! " Only those who have seen the Azores 
from the deck of a vessel realize the beauty of 
the mid-ocean picture. 

At 4:30 P. M. I cast anchor at Fayal, exactly 
eighteen days from Cape Sable. The American 
Consul, in a light boat, came alongside before 
the Spray reached the breakwater, and a young 
naval officer coming out offered his services as 
pilot. The Spray was too small for the amount 
of uniform he wore. This wonderful pilot ex- 
pected some reward for not sinking her. 

It was the season for fruit when I arrived at 
the Azores, and there was soon more of all 
kinds of it put on board than I knew what to do 
with. Islanders are always the kindest people 
in the world, and I met none anywhere kinder 
than the good hearts of this place. The people 
of the Azores are not a very rich community. 
The burden of taxes is heavy, with scant privi- 
leges in return, the air they breathe being about 



32 Around the World 

the only thing that is not taxed. The mother- 
country does not even allow them a port of 
entry for a foreign mail service. A packet 
passing ever so close with mails for Horta 
must deliver them first in Lisbon, ostensibly to 
be fumigated, but really for the tariff from 
the packet. My own letters posted at Horta 
reached the United States six days behind my 
letter from Gibraltar, mailed thirteen days 
later. 

The day after my arrival at Horta was the 
feast of a great saint. Boats loaded with people 
came from other islands to celebrate at Horta, 
the capital, or Jerusalem, of the Azores. The 
deck of the Spray was crowded from morning 
till night with men, women, and children. On 
the day after the feast a kind-hearted native 
harnessed a team and drove me a day over the 
beautiful roads all about Fayal, " because," 
said he, in broken English, "■ when I was in 
America and could n't speak a word of English, 
I found it hard till I met some one who seemed 
to have time to listen to my story, and I prom- 
ised my good saint then that if ever a stranger 
came to my country I would try to make him 
happy." Before we parted my host dined me 
with a cheer that would have gladdened the 
heart of a prince, but he was quite alone in his 



in the Sloop ** Spray " 33 

house. '' My wife and children all rest there," 
said he, pointing to the churchyard across the 
way. " I moved to this house from far off," he 
added, " to be near the spot, where I pray every 
morning." 

I remained four days at Fayal, and that was 
two days more than I had intended to stay. It 
was the kindness of the islanders and their 
touching simplicity which detained me. A 
damsel, as innocent as an angel, came alongside 
one day, and said she would embark on the 
Spray if I would land her at Lisbon. She could 
cook flying-fish, she thought, but her forte was 
dressing codfish. Her brother, Antonio, who 
served as interpreter, hinted that, anyhow, he 
would like to make the trip. Antonio's heart 
went out to one John Wilson, and he was ready 
to sail for America by way of the two capes to 
meet his friend. " Do you know John Wilson 
of Boston? "he cried. "I knew a John Wil- 
son," I said, '* but not of Boston." " He had one 
daughter and one son," said Antonio, by way of 
identifying his friend. If this reaches the right 
John Wilson, I am told to say that '' Antonio 
of Pico for some kindness remembers him." 



34 Around the World 



CHAPTER IV 

Squally weather — Luxurious fare in the Azores — Sickness — Visit 
by one of Columbus' crew — Fresh turtle-steak — Arrival at 
Gibraltar — Quarantine. 

I SET sail from Horta early on July 24. The 
southwest wind at the time was light, but 
squalls came up with the sun, and I was glad 
enough to get reefs in my sails before I had gone 
a mile. I had hardly set the mainsail, double- 
reefed, when a squall of wind down the moun- 
tains struck the sloop with such violence that I 
thought her mast would go. However, a quick 
helm brought her into the wind. As it was, 
one of the weather lanyards carried away 
and the other was stranded. My tin basin, 
caught up by the wind, went flying toward a 
French schoolship to leeward. It was more or 
less squally all day, sailing along under high 
land ; but rounding close under a bluff, I found 
an opportunity to mend the lanyards broken in 
the squall. No sooner had I lowered my sails 
when a four-oared boat shot out from some 
gully in the rocks, with a customs officer on 
board, who thought he had come upon a smug- 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 35 

gler. I had some difficulty in making him 
comprehend the true case. However, one of 
his crew, a sailorly chap, who understood how 
matters were, jumped on board while we pala- 
vered and rove off the new lanyards, and with a 
friendly hand helped me " set up the rigging." 
This incident gave the turn in my favor. The 
sailor's kind act made my story clear to all. I 
have found this the way of the world. But 
let one be without a friend, and see what will 
happen ! 

Passing the island of Pico, after the rigging 
was mended, the Spray stretched across to lee- 
ward of the island of St. Michael's, which she 
was up with early on the morning of July 26, 
the wind blowing hard. Later in the day she 
passed the Prince of Monaco's fine steam-yacht 
bound to Fayal. Since reaching the Azores I 
had lived most luxuriously on fresh bread, but- 
ter, vegetables, and fruits of all kinds. Plums 
seemed the most plentiful on the Spray, and 
these I ate without stint. I had also a Pico 
white cheese that General Manning, the Amer- 
ican consul-general, had given me, which I 
supposed was to be eaten, and of this I partook 
with the plums. 

Alas ! by night-time I was doubled up with 
cramps. The wind, which was already a 



^6 Around the World 

strong breeze, was increasing, with a heavy 
sky to the southwest. Reefs had been turned 
out, and I must tie them in again somehow. 
Between cramps I got the mainsail down and, 
as best I could, tied in the double reef. There 
being sea-room, I should, in strict prudence, 
have made all snug and gone down at once to 
my cabin. I am a careful man at sea, but this 
night, in the coming storm, I swayed up my 
sails, which, reefed though they were, were 
still too much in such heavy weather ; and I 
saw to it that the sheets were securely belayed. 
In a word, I should have laid to, but did not. 
I gave her the doubie-reefed mainsail and 
whole jib instead, and set her on her course. 
Then I went below, and threw myself upon the 
cabin floor in great pain. 

How long I lay there I could not tell, for 
I became delirious. When I came to, as I 
thought, from my swoon, I realized that the 
sloop was plunging into a heavy sea, and look- 
ing out of the companionway, to my amaze- 
ment I saw a tall man at the helm. His rigid 
hand, grasping the spokes of the wheel, held 
them as in a vise. One may imagine my aston- 
ishment. His dress was that of a foreign sailor, 
and the large red hat he wore was cockbilled 
over his left ear, and all was set off with shaggy 



in the Sloop ""^ Spray ^^ 2il 

black whiskers. He would have been taken 
for a pirate in any part of the world. While I 
gazed upon his threatening aspect I forgot the 
storm, and wondered if he had come to rob 
and murder me. This he seemed to divine. 
"^Sefior," said he, doffing his cap, " I have come 
to do you no harm." And a smile, the faintest 
in the world, but still a smile, played on his 
face, which seemed not unkind when he spoke. 
"I have come to do you no harm. I have 
sailed free," he said, " but was never worse than 
a smuggler. I am one of Columbus's crew," 
he continued. " I am the pilot of the Pinta 
come to aid you. Lie quiet, senor captain," he 
added, " and I will guide your ship to-night. 
You have a fever, but you will be all right 
to-morrow." I thought what a very devil he 
was to carry sail. Again, as if he read my 
mind, he exclaimed : " Yonder is the Pmta 
ahead ; we must overtake her. Give her sail ; 
give her sail !" Biting off a large quid of black 
twist tobacco, he said : " You did wrong, cap- 
tain, to mix cheese with plums. White cheese 
is never safe unless you know whence it 
comes." 

I made shift to spread a mattress and lie on 
that instead of the hard floor, my eyes all the 

♦Pronounced Sen-yor. 



^S Around the World 

while fastened on my strange guest, who, re- 
marking again that I would have '' only pains 
and fever/* chuckled as he chanted a wild song : 

High are the waves, fierce, gleamingf, 

High is the tempest roar ! 
High the sea-bird screaming ! 

High the Azore ! 

I suppose I was now on the mend, for I was 
peevish, and complained : " I detest your jingle. 
Your Azore should be at roost, and would have 
been were it a respectable bird ! " I begged he 
would tie a rope-yarn on the rest of the song, 
if there were any more of it. I was still in 
agony. Great seas were boarding the Spray, 
but in my fevered brain I thought they were 
boats falling on deck, that careless draymen 
were throwing from wagons on the pier to 
which I imagined the Spray was now moored, 
and without fenders to prevent her chafing. 
"" You '11 smash your boats ! " I called out again 
and again, as the seas crashed on the cabin over 
my head. " You '11 smash your boats, but you 
can't hurt the Spray. She is strong ! " I cried. 
I found, when my pains and fever had gone, 
that the deck, now as white as a shark's tooth 
from seas washing over it, had been swept 
of everything movable. To my astonishment, 



in the Sloop ** Spray " 39 

I saw now at broad day that the Spray was still 
heading as I had left her, and was going like a 
race-horse. Columbus himself could not have 
held her more exactly on her course. The sloop 
had made ninety miles in the night through a 
rough sea. I felt grateful to the old pilot, but I 
marvelled somewhat that he had not taken in 
the jib. The gale was moderating, and by noon 
the sun was shining. I measured with my sex- 
tant the height of the sun on the meridian, and 
noted the distance on the patent log, which I 
always kept towing. These told me that the 
Spray had made a true course throughout the 
twenty-four hours. I was getting much better 
now, but was very weak, and did not turn out 
reefs that day or the night following, although 
the wind fell light ; but I just put my wet 
clothes out in the sun when it was shining, and 
lying down there myself, fell asleep. Then 
who should visit me again but my old friend of 
the night before, this time, of course, in a dream. 
" You did well last night to take my advice," 
said he, *' and if you would, I should like to be 
with you often on the voyage for the love of 
adventure alone." Finishing what he had to 
say, he again doffed his cap and disappeared as 
mysteriously as he came, returning, I suppose, 
to the phantom Pinta, I awoke much refreshed, 



40 Around the World 

and with the feeling that I had been in the pres- 
ence of a friend and seaman of vast experience. 
I gathered up my clothes, which by this time 
were dry, and then, by inspiration, I threw over- 
board all the plums in the vessel. 

July 28 was exceptionally fine. The wind 
from the northwest was light and the air balmy. 
I overhauled my wardrobe, and put on a white 
shirt against nearing some coasting-packet with 
genteel folk on board. I also did some washing 
to get the salt out of my clothes. After it all 
I was hungry, so I made a fire and very cau- 
tiously stewed a dish of pears and set them 
carefully aside till I had made a pot of delicious 
coffee, for both of which I could afford sugar 
and cream. But the crowning dish of all was a 
fish-hash, and there was enough of it for two. 
I was in good health again, and my appetite 
was simply ravenous. While I was dining I 
had a large onion over the double lamp, stewing 
for a luncheon later in the day. High living 
to-day ! 

In the afternoon the Spray came upon a large 
turtle asleep on the sea. He awoke with my 
harpoon through his neck, if he awoke at all. 
I had much difficulty in landing him on deck, 
which I finally accomplished by hooking the 
throat-halyards to one of his flippers. He was 



in the Sloop ** Spray '* 41 

about as heavy as my boat. The bill of fare that 
evening- was turtle-steak, tea and toast, fried 
potatoes, stewed onions ; with dessert of stewed 
pears and cream. I saw more turtles, and I 
rigged a burton with which to hoist them in ; 
but a sudden change in the weather coming on, 
I got no more turtle or fish of any sort before 
reaching port. July 31a gale sprang up sud- 
denly from the north, with heavy seas, and I 
shortened sail. The Spray made only fifty-one 
miles on her course that day. August i the 
gale continued, with heavy seas. Through the 
night the sloop was reaching, under close- 
reefed mainsail and bobbed jib. At 3 P. M. the 
jib was washed off the bowsprit and blown to 
rags and ribbons. I bent a small sail on a stay 
at the night-heads. As for the jib, let it go ; I 
saved pieces of it, and, after all, I was in want 
of pot-rags. 

On August 3 the gale broke, and I saw many 
signs of land. Bad weather having made itself 
felt in the galley, I was minded to try my hand 
at a loaf of bread, and so rigging a pot of fire 
on deck by which to bake it, a loaf soon became 
an accomplished fact. One great feature about 
a ship's cookery is that one's appetite on the 
sea is always good. Dinner being over, I sat 
for hours reading the life of Columbus, and as 



42 Arotmd the World 

the day wore on 1 watched the birds all flying 
in one direction, and said, '' Land lies there." 

Early the next morning, August 4, I discov- 
ered Spain. I saw fires on shore, and knew 
that the country was inhabited. The Spray 
continued on her course until well in with the 
land, which was that about Trafalgar. Then 
keeping away a point, she passed through the 
Strait of Gibraltar, where she cast anchor 
at 3 P. M. of the same day, less than twenty-nine 
days from Cape Sable. At the finish of this 
first part of the trip I found myself in excellent 
health, not overworked or cramped, but as well 
as ever in my life, though I was as thin as a 
reef-point. 

Two Italian barks, which had been close 
alongside at daylight, I saw long after I had 
anchored, passing up the African side of the 
strait. The Spray had outsailed both of them, 
and had left them out of sight before she 
reached Tarifa. So far as I know, the Spray 
beat everything going across the Atlantic ex- 
cept the steamers. 

All was well, but I had forgotten to bring a 
bill of * health from Horta, and so when the 
fierce old port doctor came to inspect there was 

* A document from the health officer of a port stating the con- 
dition of the port as to health. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 43 

a row. That, however, was the very thing 
needed. If you want to get on well with a true 
Britisher you must first have a deuce of a row 
with him. I knew that, and so I fired away, 
shot for shot, as best I could. " Well, yes," the 
doctor admitted at last, " your crew are healthy 
enough, no doubt, but who knows the diseases 
of your last port?" — a reasonable enough re- 
mark. " We ought to put you in the fort, sir! " 
he blustered ; " but never mind. Free * pra- 
tique, sir ! Shove off, cockswain ! " And that 
was the last I saw of the bluff officer. 

But on the following morning a steam-launch, 
much longer than the Spray, came alongside, — 
or as much of her as could get alongside, — with 
compliments from the senior naval officer. Ad- 
miral Bruce, saying there was a berth for the 
Spray at the arsenal. This was around at the 
new mole. I had anchored at the old mole, 
among the native craft, where it was rough and 
uncomfortable. Of course I was glad to shift, 
and did so as soon as possible, thinking of the 
great company the Spray would be in among 
battle-ships such as the Collifigwood, Baljleur, 
and Cormorant, which were at that time sta- 
tioned there, and on board all of which I was 
entertained, later, most royally. 

* Permission to land. 



44 Around the World 

" * Put it there ! ' as the Americans say," was 
the salute I got from Admiral Bruce, when I 
called at the admiralty to thank him for his 
courtesy of the berth, and for the use of the 
steam-launch which towed me into dock. 
•* About the berth, it is all right if it suits, and 
we '11 tow you out when you are ready to go. 
But, say, what repairs do you want ? Ahoy the 
Hebe, can you spare your sailmaker? The Spray 
wants a new jib. Construction and repair, 
there ! will you see to the Spray ? Say, old 
man, you must have had a lively time coming 
over alone in twenty-nine days! But we *11 
make it smooth for you here ! " Not even 
her Majesty's ship the Collijigzvood was better 
looked after than the Spray at Gibraltar. 

Later in the day came the hail : " Spray ahoy ! 
Mrs. Bruce would like to come on board and 
shake hands with the Spray, Will it be con- 
venient to-day ? " " Very ! " I joyfully shouted. 
On the following day Sir F. Carrington, at the 
time governor of Gibraltar, with other high 
officers of the garrison, and all the commanders 
of the battle-ships, came on board and signed 
their names in the Spray's log-book. 

Again there was a hail, " Spray ahoy ! " 
"Hello!" "Commander Reynolds's compli- 
ments. You are invited on board H. M. S. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 45 

Collingwood, ' at home ' at 4:30 P. M. Not later 
than 5:30 P. M." I had already hinted at the 
limited amount of my wardrobe, and that I 
could never succeed as a dude. " You are ex- 
pected, sir, in a stovepipe hat and a claw-ham- 
mer coat!" " Then I can't come." " Dash it! 
come in what you have on; that is what we 
mean." *' Aye, aye, sir!" The Collingwood's 
cheer was good, and had I worn a silk hat as 
high as the moon I could not have had a better 
time or been made more at home. An Eng- 
lishman, even on his great battle-ship, unbends 
when the stranger passes his gangway, and 
when he says " at home " he means it.. 

Vegetables twice a week and milk every 
morning came from the palatial grounds of the 
admiralty. "Spray ahoy!" would hail the ad- 
miral. " Spray di\\oy\'' "Hello!" *' To-morrow 
is your vegetable day, sir." *' Aye, aye, sir!" 

I rambled much about the old city ; a gunner 
piloted me through the galleries of the rock, 
and I saw wonderful excavations as far as a 
stranger is permitted to go. 

One day I was invited on a picnic with the 
governor, the officers of the garrison, and the 
commanders of the war-ships at the station ; 
and a royal affair it was. Torpedo-boat No. 91, 
going twenty-two knots, carried our party to 



46 Around the World 

the Morocco shore and back. The day was 
perfect — too fine, in fact, for comfort on shore, 
and so no one landed at Morocco. No. 91 
trembled like an aspen-leaf as she raced through 
the sea at top speed. On the following day I 
lunched with General Carrington at Line Wall 
House, which was once the Franciscan con- 
vent. In this interesting building are preserved 
relics of the fourteen sieges which Gibraltar 
has seen. On the next day I supped with the 
admiral at his residence, the palace, which was 
once the convent of the Mercenaries. At each 
place, and all about, I felt the friendly grasp 
of a hand, that lent me strength to pass the 
coming long days at sea. I must confess that 
the perfect discipline, order, and cheerfulness 
at Gibraltar were only a second wonder in the 
great stronghold. The vast amount of business 
going forward caused no more excitement than 
the quiet sailing of a well-appointed ship in a 
smooth sea. No one spoke above his natural 
voice, save a boatswain's mate now and then. 
The venerable United States consul at Gibral- 
tar honored the Spray with a visit on Sunday, 
August 24, and was much pleased to find that 
our British cousins had been so kind to her. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 47 



CHAPTER V 

Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug — 
The Spray^s course changed from the Suez Canal to the Cape 
of Good Hope — A brush with pirates — A fortunate escape — 
Passing the Canary Islands — At the mercy of an African har- 
mattan — The Cape Verde Islands — Arrival at Pernambuco. 

Monday, August 25, the Spray sailed from 
Gibraltar. A tug belonging to her Majesty 
towed the sloop into the steady breeze clear of 
the mount, where her sails caught a strong 
east wind which carried her once more to the 
Atlantic, where it rose rapidly to a furious 
gale. My plan was, in going down this coast, 
to haul offshore well clear of the land, which 
hereabouts is the home of pirates; but I had 
hardly accomplished this when I perceived a 
felucca making out of the nearest port, and fol- 
lowing in the wake of the Spray. Now, my 
course to Gibraltar had been taken with a view 
to proceed up the Mediterranean Sea, through 
the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, and east 
about, instead of a western route, which I finally 
adopted. By officers of vast experience in nav- 
igating those seas, I was influenced to make 
the change. Long-shore pirates on both coasts 



48 Around the World 

being numerous, 1 could not afford to make 
light of the advice. But here I was, after all, 
in the midst of pirates and thieves ! I changed 
my course ; the felucca did the same, both ves- 
sels sailing very fast, but the distance growing 
less and less between us. The Spray was doing 
nobly ; she was even more than at her best ; 
but, in spite of all I could do, she would now 
and then partly round into the wind. She was 
carrying too much sail for safety. I must reef 
or be dismasted and lose all. Pirate or no pirate, 
I must reef, even it I had to grapple with him 
for my life before the sail could be reset. 

I was not long in reefing the mainsail and 
sweating it up — probably not more than fifteen 
minutes; but the felucca had in the meantime 
so shortened the distance between us that I 
now saw the tufts of hair on the heads of the 
crew. They were coming on like the wind. 
From what I could clearly make out now, I 
felt them to be the sons of generations of 
pirates, and I saw by their movements that 
they were preparing to strike a blow. The 
exultation on their faces, however, was changed 
in an instant to a look of fear and rage. Their 
craft, with too much sail on, also partly rounded 
into the wind on the crest of a great wave. 
This one great sea changed suddenly the aspect 



in the Sloop " Spray " 49 

of affairs. Three minutes later the same wave 
overtook the Spray and shook her in every 
timber. At the same moment the strap of the 
main-sheet block, parted, and away went the 
main-boom, broken short at the rigging. In- 
stantly I sprang to the jib-halyards and down- 
haul, and quickly downed the jib. The head- 
sail being off, and the helm put hard down, 
the sloop came into the wind with a bound. 
While shivering there, but a moment though 
it was, I got the mainsail down and secured 
inboard, broken boom and all. How I got the 
boom in before the sail was torn I hardly know ; 
but not a stitch of it was broken. The main- 
sail being secured, I hoisted away the jib, and, 
without looking round, stepped quickly to the 
cabin and snatched down my loaded rifle and 
cartridges at hand ; for I made mental calcula- 
tions that the pirate would by this time have 
recovered his course and be close aboard, and 
that when I saw him it would be better for 
me to be looking at him along the barrel of a 
gun. The piece was at my shoulder when I 
peered into the mist, but there was no pirate 
within a mile. The wave and squall that car- 
ried away my boom dismasted the felucca out- 
right. I perceived his thieving crew, some 
dozen or more of them, struggling to recover 



50 Arotmd the World 

their rigging from the sea. Allah blacken 
their faces ! 

1 sailed comfortably on under the jib and 
fore-staysail, which I now set. I mended the 
boom and furled the sail snug for the night ; 
then hauled the sloop's head two points off- 
shore to allow for the set of current and heavy 
rollers toward the land. This gave me the 
wind *three points on the starboard quarter and 
a steady pull in the headsails. By the time I 
had things in this order it was dark, and a fly- 
ing-fish had already fallen on deck. I took him 
below for my supper, but found myself too tired 
to cook, or even to eat a thing already prepared. 
I do not remember to have been more tired be- 
fore or since in all my life than I was at the fin- 
ish of that day. Too fatigued to sleep, I rolled 
about with the motion of the vessel till near 
midnight, when 1 made shift to dress my fish 
and prepare a dish of tea. I fully realized now, 
if I had not before, that the voyage ahead would 
call for exertions ardent and lasting. On August 
27 nothing could be seen of the Moor, or his 
country either, except two peaks, away in the 
east through the clear atmosphere of morning. 
Soon after the sun rose even these were ob- 
scured by haze, much to my satisfaction. 

*A point of the compass is 1 1 ^ degrees of a circle. 



in the Sloop ''Spray''' 51 

The wind, for a few days following my escape 
from the pirates, blew a steady but moderate 
gale, and the sea, though agitated into long rol- 
lers, was not uncomfortably rough or dangerous, 
and while sitting in my cabin I could hardly 
realize that any sea was running at all, so easy 
was the long, swinging motion of the sloop over 
the waves. All uneasiness and excitement be- 
ing now over, I was once more alone in the 
realization that I was on the mighty sea in the 
hands of the elements and of God. I was hap- 
py, and was becoming more and more inter- 
ested in the voyage. Columbus sailing these 
seas more than four hundred years before was 
not so happy as I, nor so sure of success in his 
undertaking. 

After three days of squalls and shifting winds 
I threw myself down to rest and sleep, while, 
with helm lashed, the sloop sailed steadily on 
her course. 

September i, in the early morning, land- 
clouds rising ahead told of the Canary Islands 
not far away. A change in the weather came 
next day : storm-clouds crossed the sky from 
the east with the appearances of a fierce har- 
mattan.* Every point of the compass threatened 

*An intensely dry land-wind prevalent on the western coast of 



52 Aroimd the World 

a storm. I was again reefing sails, with no 
time to be lost over it, for the sea in a moment 
was confusion itself, and I was glad to head the 
sloop three points or more away from her true 
course that she might ride safely over the 
waves. She was now scudding for the chan- 
nel between Africa and the island of Fuerte- 
ventura, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, 
for which 1 was on the lookout. At 2 P. M., the 
weather becoming suddenly fine, the island 
stood in view, already abeam to starboard, and 
not more than seven miles off. Fuerteventura 
is twent3^-seven hundred feet high, and in fine 
weather is visible many^ leagues away. 

The wind freshened in the night, and the 
Spray had a fine run through the channel. By 
daylight, September 3, she was twenty-five 
miles clear of all the islands, when a calm en- 
sued, which was the precursor of another gale 
of wind that soon came on, bringing with it 
dust from the African shore. This gfale was 
the real harmattan. It howled dismally while 
it lasted, and though it was not the usual sea- 
son of harmattan, the sea in the course of an 
hour was discolored with a reddish-brown dust. 
The air remained thick with flying dust all the 
afternoon, but the wind, veering northwest at 
night, swept it back to land, and afforded the 



in the Sloop *^ Spray'' 53 

Spray once more a clear sky. Her mast now 
bent under a strong, steady pressure, and her 
bellying sail swept the sea as she rolled scup- 
pers under, courtesying to the waves. These 
rolling waves thrilled me as they tossed my 
ship, passing quickly under her keel. This was 
grand sailing, 

September 4, the wind, still fresh, blew from 
the north-northeast, and the sea surged along 
with the sloop. About noon a cattle steamship 
from the river Plate hove in sight, steering 
northeast, and making bad weather of it. I 
signalled her, but got no answer. She was 
plunging into the head sea and rolling badly, 
and from the way she veered about one might 
have said that a wild steer was at the helm. 

On the morning of September 6 I found three 
flying-fish on deck, and the fourth one down 
the fore-scuttle close to the frying-pan. It was 
the best haul yet, and afforded me a sumptuous 
breakfast and dinner. 

The Spray had now come into the region of 
the trade-winds. These winds are called " The 
Trades" because trading ships bound westward 
can set their sails and rely upon keeping them 
set, as the wind blows all the time from one di- 
rection. Later in the day another cattle carrier 
hove in sight, rolling as badly as the first one. 



54 Around the World 

I threw out no flag to this one, but got the 
worst of it for passing under her lee. She was 
a stale one ! And the poor cattle, how they 
bellowed ! The time was when ships passing 
one another at sea backed their topsails and ex- 
changed news, and on parting fired guns ; but 
those good old days have gone. People have 
hardly time nowadays to speak even on the 
broad ocean, where news is news, and as for a 
salute of guns, they cannot afford the powder. 
There are no poetry-enshrined freighters on the 
sea now ; it is a prosy life when we have no 
time to bid one another good morning. 

My ship, running now in the full swing of the 
trades, left me days to myself for rest and recu- 
peration. I employed the time in reading and 
writing, or in whatever I found to do about the 
rigging and the sails to keep them all in order. 
The cooking was always done quickly, and was 
a small matter, as the bill of fare consisted most- 
ly of flying-fish, hot biscuits and butter, pota- 
toes, coffee and cream — dishes readily prepared. 

On September lo the Spray passed the island 
of St. Antonio, the north westernmost of the Cape 
Verdes, close aboard. The landfall was won- 
derfully true, considering that no observations 
for longitude had been made. The wind, north- 
east, as the sloop drew by the island, was very 



in the Sloop " Spray " 55 

squally, but I reefed her sails snug, and steered 
broad from the highland of blustering St. An- 
tonio. Then leaving the Cape Verde Islands 
out of sight astern, I found myself once more 
sailing a lonely sea and in a solitude supreme 
all around. When I slept I dreamed that I was 
alone. This feeling never left me ; but, sleeping 
or waking, I seemed always to know the position 
of the sloop, and I saw my vessel moving across 
the chart, which became a picture before me. 

One night while I sat in the cabin under 
this spell, the profound stillness all about was 
broken by human voices alongside ! I sprang 
instantly to the deck, startled beyond my power 
to tell. Passing close under lee, like an appa- 
rition, was a white bark under full sail. The 
sailors on board of her were hauling on ropes 
to brace the yards, which just cleared the 
sloop's mast as she swept by. No one hailed 
from the white-winged flier, but I heard some 
one on board say that he saw lights on the 
sloop, and that he made her out to be a fisher- 
man. I sat long on the starlit deck that night, 
thinking of ships, and watching the constella- 
tions on their voyage. 

On the following day, September 13, a large 
four-masted ship passed some distance to wind- 
ward, heading north. 



56 Around the World 

The sloop was now rapidly drawing- toward 
the region of doldrums, and the force of the 
trade-winds was lessening. I could see by the 
ripples that a counter-current had set in. This 
1 estimated to be about sixteen miles a day. In 
the heart of the counter-stream the rate was 
more than that setting eastward. 

September 14 a lofty three-masted ship, head- 
ing north, was seen from the masthead. Neither 
this ship nor the one seen yesterday was with- 
in signal distance, yet it was good even to see 
them. On the following day heavy rain-clouds 
rose in the south, obscuring the sun ; this was 
ominous of the doldrums, the calms and squalls 
near the equator. On the i6th the Spray en- 
tered this gloomy region, to battle with squalls 
and to be harassed by fitful calms. Still more 
trying to one's nerve and patience, the sea was 
tossed into confused cross-lumps and fretted 
by eddying currents. As if something more 
were needed to complete a sailor's discom- 
fort, rain poured down in torrents day and 
night. The Spray struggled and tossed for 
ten days, making only three hundred miles 
on her course in all that time. I didn't say 
anything ! 

On September 23 the fine schooner Nantas- 
ket of Boston, from Bear River, for the River 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 57 

Plate, lumber-laden, and just through the dol- 
drums, came up with the Spray, and her cap- 
tain passing a few words, she sailed on, drawing 
away with her my companions, the fishes, which 
had been following the Spray. One of this lit- 
tle school of deserters was a dolphin that had 
followed the Spray about a thousand miles, and 
had been content to eat scraps of food thrown 
overboard from my table ; for, having been 
wounded, it could not dart through the sea to 
prey on other fishes. I had become accustomed 
to seeing the dolphin, which I knew by its scars, 
and missed it whenever it went away from the 
sloop. One day, after it had been off some 
hours, it returned in company with three yel- 
lowtails, a sort of cousin to the dolphin. This 
little school kept together, except when in dan- 
ger and when foraging about the sea. Their 
lives were often threatened by hungry sharks 
that came round the vessel, and more than 
once they had narrow escapes. Their mode 
of escape interested me greatly, and I passed 
hours watching them. They would dart away, 
each in a different direction, so that the wolf 
of the sea, the shark, pursuing one, would be 
led away from the others ; then after a while 
they would all return and rendezvous under 
one side or the other of the sloop. Twice their 



58 Around the World 

pursuers were diverted by a tin pan, which I 
towed astern of the sloop, and which was mis- 
taken for a bright iish ; and while turning over 
in the peculiar way that sharks have, to bring 
their short lower jaw to bear on their prey, I 
shot them through the head. 

Nearing the equatorial limit of the southeast 
trade-winds, I found the air heavily charged 
with electricity, and there was much thunder 
and lightning. It was hereabout I remembered 
that, a few years before, the American ship 
Alert was destroyed by lightning. 

On September 25, in the latitude of 5° N., 
longitude 26° 30^ W., I spoke the ship North 
Star of London. The great ship was out forty- 
eight days from Norfolk, Virginia, and was 
bound for Rio, where we met again about two 
months later. The Spray was now thirty days 
from Gibraltar. 

The Spray s next companion of the voyage 
was a swordfish, that swam alongside, showing 
its tall black fin out of the water, till I made 
a stir for my harpoon, when it hauled its black 
flag down and disappeared. September 30, at 
half-past eleven in the morning, the Spray 
crossed the equator in longitude 29° 30' W. 
At noon she was two miles south of the line. 
The southeast trade-winds, met, rather light, 



171 the Sloop '* Spray " 59 

in about 4° N., gave her sails now a stiff full, 
sending her handsomely over the sea toward 
the coast of Brazil, where on October 5, just 
north of Olinda Point, without further incident, 
she made the land, casting anchor in Pernam- 
buco Harbor about noon : forty days from Gib- 
raltar, and all well on board. Did I tire of the 
voyage in all that time ? Not a bit of it ! I was 
never in better trim in all my life, and was 
eager for the more perilous experience of round- 
ing the Horn. I had made previous voyages to 
Pernambuco and other ports in Brazil, and was 
now among old friends, where I remained about 
eighteen days. 

Fruits and vegetables and other provisions 
necessary for the voyage having been taken in, 
on the 23d of October I unmoored and made 
ready for sea. While at Pernambuco I short- 
ened the boom, which had been broken when 
off the coast of Morocco, by removing the 
broken piece, which took about four feet off 
the inboard end ; I also refitted the jaws. On 
October 24, 1895, a fine day even as days go in 
Brazil, the Spray sailed, having had abundant 
good cheer. Making about one hundred miles 
a day along the coast, I arrived at Rio de 
Janeiro November 5, without any event worth 
mentioning, and about noon cast anchor near 



6o Around the World 

the fort to await the official port visit and gain 
pratique. 

I had decided to give the Spray a yawl rig 
for the tempestuous waters of Patagonia, and 
here placed on the stern a semicircular brace 
to support a jigger mast. 



in the Sloop " Spray " 6l 



CHAPTER VI 

Departure from Rio de Janeiro — The Spray ashore on the sands 
of Uruguay — The boy who found a sloop — The Spray floated — 
Courtesies from the British Consul at Maldonado — A warm 
greeting at Montevideo — A pleasant stay in Buenos Aires. 

On November 28 the Spray sailed from Rio 
de Janeiro, and first of all ran into a gale of 
wind, which tore up things generall}^ along the 
coast, doing considerable damage to shipping. 
It was well for her, perhaps, that she was clear 
of the land. Coasting along on this part of the 
voyage, I observed that while some of the 
small vessels I fell in with were able to outsail 
the Spray by day, they fell astern of her by 
night. To the Spray da}^ and night were the 
same ; to the others clearly there was a dif- 
ference. On one of the very fine days experi- 
enced after leaving Rio, the steamship South 
Wales spoke the Spray and unsolicited gave the 
longitude by chronometer as 48° W., "as near 
as I can make it," the captain said. The Spray^ 
with her tin clock, had exactly the same reck- 
oning. The latitude was S. 29° 28^ I was 
feeling at ease in my primitive method of nav- 



62 Around the World 

igation, out it startled me not a little to find my 
position by account verified by the ship's chro- 
nometer. 

On December 5 a barkentine hove in sight, 
and for several days the two vessels sailed 
along the coast together. Right here a cur- 
rent was experienced setting north, making it 
necessary to hug the shore, with which the 
Spray became rather familiar. Here I confess 
a weakness: I hugged the shore too close, for 
at daybreak on the morning of December 1 1 
the Spray ran hard and fast on the beach. The 
false appearance of the sand-hills under a bright 
moon had deceived me, and I lamented now 
that I had trusted to appearances at all. The 
sea, though moderately smooth, still carried a 
swell which broke with some force on the shore. 
I managed to launch my small dory from the 
deck, and ran out an anchor ; but it was too 
late to haul the sloop off, for the tide was fall- 
ing and had already settled a foot. Then I 
went about '' laying out " the larger anchor, 
which was no easy matter, for my only life- 
boat, the frail dory, when the anchor and cable 
were in it, was swamped at once in the surf, the 
load being too great for her. Then I cut the 
cable and made two loads of it instead of one. 
The anchor, with forty fathoms of cable bent 



in the Sloop " Spray " 63 

on to it and already buoyed, I now took and 
succeeded in getting through the surf; but my 
dory was leaking fast, and by the time I had 
rowed far enough to drop the anchor she was 
full to the gunwale and sinking. There was 
not a moment to spare, and I saw clearly that 
if I failed now all might be lost. I sprang from 
the oars to my feet, and lifting the anchor above 
my head, threw it clear just as she was turning 
over. I grasped her gunwale and held on as 
she turned bottom up, for I suddenly remem- 
bered that I could not swim. Then I tried to 
right her, but with too much eagerness, for she 
rolled clean over, and left me as before, cling- 
ing to her gunwale, while my body was still in 
the water. Giving a moment to cool reflection, 
I found that although the wind was blowing 
moderately toward the land, the current was 
carrying me to sea, and that something would 
have to be done. Three times I had been un- 
der water, in trying to right the dory, and so I 
was seized by a determination to try yet once 
more, so that no one of the prophets of evil I 
had left behind could say, " I told you so." 
Whatever the danger may have been, much or 
little, I can truly say that the moment was the 
most serene of my life. 

After righting the dory for the fourth time, 



64 Around the World 

I finally succeeded by the utmost care in keep- 
ing her upright while I hauled myself into her 
and with one of the oars, which I had recov- 
ered, paddled to the shore, somewhat the worse 
for wear and pretty full of salt water. The 
position of my vessel, now high and dry, gave 
me anxiety. To get her afloat again was all I 
thought of or cared for. I had little difficulty 
in carrying the second part of my cable out and 
securing it to the first, which I had taken the 
precaution to buoy before I put it into the boat. 
To bring the end back to the sloop was a smaller 
matter still, and I believe I chuckled over my 
sorrows when I found that in all the haphazard 
my judgment or my good genius had faithfully 
stood by me. The cable reached from the an- 
chor in deep water to the sloop's windlass by 
just enough to secure a turn and no more. The 
anchor had been dropped at the right distance 
from the vessel. To heave all taut now and 
wait for the coming tide was all I could do. 

I had already done enough work to tire a 
stouter man, and was only too glad to throw 
myself on the sand above the tide and rest, for 
the sun was already up, and pouring a gener- 
ous warmth over the land. While my state 
could have been worse, I was on the wild coast 
of a foreign country, and not entirely secure in 



in the Sloop ''Spray" 65 

my property, as I soon found out. I had not 
been long on the shore when I heard the pat- 
ter, patter, of a horse's feet approaching along 
the hard beach, which ceased as it came abreast 
of the ridge of sand where I lay sheltered from 
the wind. 

Looking up cautiously I saw, mounted on a 
nag, probably the most astonished boy on the 
whole coast. He had found a sloop ! ''It must 
be mine," he thought, " for am I not the first 
to see it on the beach ? " Sure enough, there 
it was all high and dry and painted white. He 
trotted his horse around it, and finding no 
owner, hitched the nag to the sloop's bobstay 
and hauled as though he would take her home ; 
but of course she was too heavy for one horse 
to move. With my skiff, however, it was dif- 
ferent ; this he hauled some distance, and con- 
cealed behind a dune in a bunch of tall grass. 
He had made up his mind, I dare say, to bring 
more horses and drag his bigger prize away, 
anyhow, and was starting off for the settlement 
a mile or so away, when I discovered myself to 
him, at which he seemed displeased and disap- 
pointed. " Good morning, my boy," I said, in 
Spanish. He grunted a reply, and eyed me 
keenly from head to foot. 

Then bursting into a volley of questions, — 



66 Around the World 

more than six Yankees could ask, — he wanted 
to know, first, where my ship was from, and 
how many days she had been coming. Then he 
asked what 1 was doing here ashore so early 
in the morning. " Your questions are easily 
answered," I replied ; " my ship is from the 
moon, it has taken her a month to come, and 
she is here for a cargo of boys." But this re- 
mark, had I not been on the alert, might have 
cost me dearly ; for while I spoke the child of 
the plains coiled his lariat ready to throw, and 
instead of being himself carried to the moon, 
he was apparently thinking of towing me home 
by the neck, behind his horse, over the fields of 
Uruguay. 

The exact spot where I was stranded was at 
the Castillo Chicos, about seven miles south of 
the dividing-line of Uruguay and Brazil, and 
of course the natives there speak Spanish. To 
put my earl}^ visitor in good humor, I told him 
that I had on my ship biscuits, and that I wished 
to trade them for butter and milk. On hear- 
ing this a broad grin lighted up his face, and 
showed that he was greatly interested, and that 
even in Uruguay a ship's, biscuit will cheer the 
heart of a boy and make him your bosom friend. 
The lad almost Hew home, and returned quickly 
with butter, milk, and eggs. I was, after all, in 



^^rr 



^ > 







I 



in the Sloop "-Spray'' 67 

a land of plenty. With the boy came others, old 
and young, from neighboring ranches, among 
them a German settler, who was of great assist- 
ance to me in many ways. 

A coast-guard from Fort Teresa, a few miles 
away, also came, "to protect your property 
from the natives of the plains," he said. I took 
occasion to tell him, however, that if he would 
look after the people of his own village, I would 
take care of those from the plains, pointing, as 
I spoke, to the nondescript " merchant " who 
had already stolen my revolver and several 
small articles from my cabin, which by a bold 
front I had recovered. The chap was not a 
native Uruguayan. Here, as in many other 
places that I visited, the natives themselves 
were not the ones discreditable to the coun- 
try. 

Early in the day a despatch came from the 
port captain of Montevideo, commanding the 
coast-guards to render the Spray every assist- 
ance. This, however, was not necessary, for a 
guard was already on the alert, and making 
all the ado that would become the wreck of 
a steamer with a thousand emigrants aboard. 
The same messenger brought word from the 
port captain that he would despatch a steam- 
tug to tow the Spray to Montevideo. The oflfi- 



68 Around the World 

cer was as good as his word ; a powerful tug 
arrived on the following day; but, to make a 
long story short, with the help of the German 
and one soldier and one Italian, called '' Angel 
of Milan," I had already floated the sloop and 
was sailing for port with the boom off before a 
fair wind. The adventure cost the Spray no 
small amount of pounding on the hard sand ; 
she lost her shoe and part of her false keel, and 
received other damage, which, however, was 
readily mended afterward in dock. 

On the following day I anchored at Maldo- 
nado. The British consul, his daughter, and 
another young lady came on board, bringing 
with them a basket of fresh eggs, strawberries, 
bottles of milk, and a great loaf of sweet bread. 
This was a good landfall, and better cheer than 
I had found at Maldonado once upon a time 
when I entered the port with a stricken crew 
in my bark, the Aquidneck. 

Shortly after the good consul's visit, the 
Spray sailed for Montevideo, where she arrived 
on the following day and was saluted till I felt 
embarrassed and wished that I had arrived un- 
observed. The voyage so far may have seemed 
to the Uruguayans a feat worthy of some rec- 
ognition ; but there was so much of it yet 
ahead, and of such an arduous nature, that any 



in the Sloop ^' Spray''' 69 

demonstration at this point seemed, somehow, 
like boasting prematurely. 

The Spray had barely come to anchor at 
Montevideo when the agents of the Royal Mail 
Steamship Company, Messrs. Humphreys & 
Co., sent word that they would dock and repair 
her free of expense and give me twenty pounds 
sterling, which they did, and more besides. 
The calkers at Montevideo paid very careful 
attention to the work of making the sloop tight. 
Carpenters mended the keel and also the life- 
boat (the dory), painting it till I hardly knew 
it from a butterfly. 

Christmas of 1895 found the Spray refitted 
even to a wonderful makeshift stove which 
was contrived from a large iron drum of some 
sort, punched full of holes to give it a draft; 
the pipe reached straight up through the top 
of the forecastle. Now, this was not a stove 
by mere courtesy. It was always hungry for 
wood ; and in cold, wet days off the coast of 
Tierra del Fuego, it stood me in good stead. 
Its one door swung on copper hinges, which 
one of the yard apprentices, with laudable pride, 
polished till the whole thing blushed like the 
brass binnacle of a steamer. There was nothing 
in the weather about Christmas at Montevideo 
to suggest the need of a stove, for it being mid- 



70 Around the World 

summer in that country, the weather was ex- 
cessively warm. 

The Spray was now ready for sea. Instead 
of proceeding at once on her voyage, however, 
she made an excursion up the river, sailing 
December 29. An old friend of mine, Captain 
Howard of Cape Cod and of River Plate fame, 
took the trip in her to Buenos Aires, where she 
arrived early on the following day, with a gale 
of wind and a current so much in her favor that 
she outdid herself. I was glad to have a sailor 
of Howard's experience on board to witness 
her performance of sailing with no living being 
at the helm. Howard sat near the binnacle 
and watched the compass while the sloop held 
her course so steadily that one would have de- 
clared that the compass-card was nailed fast. 
My old friend had owned and sailed a pilot- 
sloop on the river for many years, but this feat 
took the wind out of his sails at last, and he 
cried, '* I never saw the like of it! " Perhaps 
he had never given his sloop a chance to show 
what she could do. The point I make for the 
Spray here, above all other points, is that she 
sailed in shoal water and in a strong current, 
with other difficult and unusual conditions. 
Captain Howard was a sailor who could take 
all this into account. 



in the Sloop ""Spray"' 71 

I had not been in Buenos Aires for a number 
of years. The place where I had once landed 
from packets, in a cart, was now built up with 
magnificent docks. Vast fortunes had been 
spent in remodelling the harbor. The port 
captain, after assigning the Spray a safe berth, 
with his compliments, sent me word to call on 
him for anything I might want while in port, 
and I felt quite sure that his friendship was 
sincere. The sloop was well cared for at 
Buenos Aires; her dockage and tonnage dues 
were all free, and the yachting fraternity of 
the city welcomed her with a good will. In 
town I found things not so greatly changed as 
about the docks, and I soon felt myself more 
at home. 

I had forwarded a letter from Sir Edward 
Hairby, grandson of Sir John Franklin, to the 
owner of the "Standard," Mr. Mulhall of 
Buenos Aires. This assured me a warm wel- 
come to the great southern metropolis. Mr. 
Mulhall met me at the docks as soon as the 
Spray was berthed, and would have me go to 
his house at once, where a room was waiting me. 
It was now New Year's day, 1896. The course 
of the Spray had been followed in the columns 
of the " Standard." 

Mr. Mulhall kindly drove me to see many 



72 Around the World 

improvements about the city, and we went in 
search of some of the old landmarks. The 
man who sold " lemonade " on the plaza when 
first I visited this wonderful city, I found selling 
lemonade still at two cents a glass ; he had 
made a fortune by it. His stock in trade was 
a wash-tub and a neighboring hydrant, a mod- 
erate supply of brown sugar, and about six 
lemons that floated on the sweetened water. 
The water from time to time was renewed from 
the friendly pump, but the lemon '' went on 
forever," and all at two cents a glass. 

Farther along in the city, survived the good 
man who painted on the side of his store, where 
thoughtful men might read and learn : " This 
wicked world will be destroyed by a comet ! 
The owner of this store is therefore bound to 
sell out at any price and avoid the catastro- 
phe." My friend Mr. Mulhall drove me around 
to view the fearful comet with streaming tail pic- 
tured large on the trembling merchant's walls. 

I unshipped the sloop's mast at Buenos Aires 
and shortened it by seven feet. I reduced the 
length of the bowsprit by about five feet, and 
even then I found it reaching far enough from 
home ; and more than once, when on the end 
of it reefing the jib, I regretted that I had not 
shortened it another foot. 



in the Sloop '' Spray '^ y^ 



CHAPTER VII 

Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires — The Spray submerged by a 
great wave — Fine weather — A stormy entrance to the Strait of 
Magellan — Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet 
tacks — Experience with Williwaws — Off Cape Froward — Pur- 
sued by Fuegian Indians in Fortescue Bay — Towed by a 
Chilian gunboat — Animal life in the strait. 

On January 26, 1896, the Spray, being refitted 
and well provisioned in every way, sailed from 
Buenos Aires. There Avas little wind at the 
start ; the surface of the great river was like a 
silver disk, and I was glad of a tow from a har- 
bor tug to clear the port entrance. But a gale 
came up soon after, causing an ugly sea, and 
instead of being all silver, as before, the river 
was now all mud. The Plate is a treacherous 
place for storms. One sailing there should 
always be on the alert for squalls. I cast 
anchor before dark in the best lee I could find 
near the land, but was tossed miserably all 
night, heartsore of choppy seas. On the follow- 
ing morning I got the sloop under way, and 
with reefed sails worked her down the river 
against a head wind. Standing in that night to 
the place where pilot Howard joined me for the 



74 Around the World 

up-river sail, I took a departure, shaping my 
course to clear Point Indio on the one hand, 
and the English Bank on the other. 

I had not for many years been south of these 
regions. I will not say that I expected all fine 
sailing on the course for Cape Horn direct, but 
while I worked at the sails and rigging I thought 
only of onward and forward. It Avas when 1 
anchored in the lonely places that a feeling of 
awe crept over me. At the last anchorage on 
the monotonous and muddy river, weak as it 
may seem, I gave way to my feelings. I re- 
solved then that I would anchor no more north 
of the Strait of Magellan. 

On the 28th of January the Spray was clear 
of Point Indio, English Bank, and all the other 
dangers of the River Plate. With a fair wind 
she then bore away for the Strait of Magellan, 
under all sail, pressing farther and farther 
toward the wonderland of the South, till I al- 
most forgot the blessings of our milder North. 

My ship passed in safety Bahia Blanca, also 
the Gulf of St. Matias and the mighty Gulf of 
St. George, off whose coasts are destructive 
tide-races, the dread of big craft or little. I 
gave all the capes a berth of about fifty miles to 
clear these dangers, for they extend many miles 
from the land. But where the sloop avoided 



in the Sloop '' Spi^ay'' 75 

one danger she encountered another. For, one 
day, well off this rough coast, while scudding 
under short sail, a tremendous wave, the 
culmination, it seemed, of many waves, rolled 
down upon her in a storm, roaring as it came. 
I had only a moment to get all sail down and my- 
self up on the peak halliards, out of danger, when 
I saw the mighty crest towering masthead-high 
above me. The mountain of water submerged 
my vessel. She shook in every timber and ^ 

reeled under the weight of the sea, but rose 
quickly out of it, and rode grandly over the 
rollers that followed. It may have been a min- 
ute that from my hold in the rigging I could 
see no part of the Spray s hull. Perhaps it was 
even less time than that, but it seemed a long 
while, for under great excitement one lives 
fast, and in a few seconds one may think a 
great deal of one's past life. Not only did the 
past, with electric speed, flash before me, but 
I had time while in my hazardous position for 
resolutions for the future that would take a long 
time to fulfil. The first one was, I remember, 
that if the Spray came through this danger I 
would dedicate my best energies to building 
a larger ship on her lines, which 1 hope yet to 
do. Other promises, less easily kept, I should 
have made under protest. However, the in- 



']^ Around the World 

cident, which filled me with fear, was only one 
more test of the Spray's seaworthiness. It re- 
assured me against rude Cape Horn. 

From the time the great wave swept over the 
Spray until she reached Cape Virgin nothing 
occurred to move a pulse and set blood in 
motion. On the contrary, the weather became 
fine, the sea smooth, and life tranquil. The 
phenomenon of mirage I witnessed once, and 
that of looming frequently occurred. I saw, a 
long way off, the land for which I was steering 
pictured against the sky in the glistening haze. 
An albatross sitting on the water one day loomed 
up like a large ship ; two fur-seals asleep on the 
surface of the sea appeared like great whales, 
and a bank of haze I could have sworn was high 
land. The kaleidoscope then changed, and on 
the following day I sailed in a world where 
everything seemed small. 

On February 1 1 the Spray rounded Cape Vir- 
gin and entered the Strait of Magellan. The 
scene was gloomy ; the wind, northeast, and 
blowing a gale, sent feather-white spume along 
the coast; such a sea ran as would swamp an 
ill-appointed ship. As the sloop neared the en- 
trance to the Strait I observed that two great 
tide-races made ahead, one very close to the 
point of the land and one farther offshore. Be- 



hi the Sloop ''Spray''' "]"] 

tween the two, in a sort of channel, through 
combers, went the Spray with close-reefed sails. 
My early experiences in the strong tideway on 
the Bay of Fundy benefited me now. A roll- 
ing sea, however, followed her a long way in, 
and a fierce head current swept around the 
cape ; but . this she stemmed, and was soon 
chirruping under the lee of Cape Virgin and 
running every minute into smoother water. 
Long trailing kelp from sunken rocks Avaved 
forebodingly under her keel, and the wreck of 
a great steamship smashed on the beach abreast 
gave a gloomy aspect to the scene. 

I was not to be let off easy. The Virgin 
would collect tribute even from the Spray pass- 
ing the promontory. Fitful rain-squalls from 
the northwest followed the northeast gale. I 
reefed the sloop's sails, for it was now the 
blackest of nights all around, except away in 
the southwest, where the old familiar white 
arch of a sky clearing for more wind rapidly 
pushed up by a southwest gale, the terror of 
Cape Horn. I had only a moment to lower 
sail and lash all solid when it struck like a shot 
from a cannon, and for the first half-hour it was 
something to be remembered by way of a gale. 
For thirty hours it kept on blowing hard. The 
sloop could carry no more than a three-reefed 



yS Around the World 

mainsail and forestaysail ; with these she held 
on stoutly and was not blown out of the strait. 
In the height of the squalls in this gale she 
doused all sail, and this occurred often enough. 

Then the wind moderated till she could carry 
all sail again, and the Spray, passing through 
the narrows without mishap, cast anchor at 
Sandy Point on February 14, 1896. 

Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) is a Chilean coal- 
ing-station, and boasts about two thousand in- 
habitants, of mixed nationality, but mostly 
Chileans. What with sheep-farming, gold-min- 
ing, and hunting, the settlers in this dreary land 
seemed not the worst off in the world. But 
the natives, Patagonian and Fuegian, were 
wretchedly squalid. 

The port at the time of my visit was free, 
but a custom-house was in course of con- 
struction. A soldier police guarded the place, 
aided at times by a sort of vigilante force. 
Just previous to my arrival the governor had 
sent a party to foray a Fuegian settlement and 
wipe out what they could of it on account of 
the recent massacre of a schooner's crew some- 
where else. The port captain, a Chilean naval 
officer, advised me to ship hands to fight Ind- 
ians in the strait farther west, and spoke of my 
stopping until a gun-boat should be going 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 79 

through, which would give me a tow. After 
canvassing the place, however, I found only 
one man willing to embark, and he on con- 
dition that I should ship another '* mon and a 
doog." But as no one else was willing to come 
along, and as I drew the line at dogs, I said no 
more about the matter, but loaded my guns. 
At this point in my dilemma Captain Pedro 
Samblich, a good Austrian of large experience, 
coming along, gave me a bag of carpet-tacks, 
worth more than all the fighting men and dogs 
of Tierra del Fuego. I protested that I had 
no use for carpet-tacks on board. Samblich 
smiled at my want of experience, and main- 
tained stoutly that I would have use for them. 
*' You must use them with discretion," he said ; 
" that is to say, don't step on them yourself." 
With this remote hint about the use of the 
tacks I got on all right, and saw the way to 
maintain clear decks at night without the care 
of watching. 

Samblich was greatly interested in my voy- 
age, and after giving me the tacks, he put on 
board bags of biscuits and a large quantity of 
smoked venison. He declared that my bread, 
which was ordinary sea-biscuits and easily 
broken, was not as nutritious as his, which was 
§0 hard that I could break it only with a stout 



8o Around the Wojdd 

blow from a maul. Then he gave me, from his 
own sloop, a compass which was certainly 
better than mine, and he offered to unbend her 
mainsail for me if I would accept it. Last of 
all, this large-hearted man brought out a bottle 
of Fuegian gold-dust from a place where it had 
been caMd and begged me to help myself from 
it, for use farther along on the voyage. But I 
felt sure of success without this draft on a 
friend, and I was right. Samblich's tacks, as it 
turned out, were of more value than gold. 

The port captain finding that I was resolved 
to go, even alone, since there was no help for 
it, set up no further objections, but advised me, 
in case the savages tried to surround me with 
their canoes, to shoot straight, and begin to do 
it in time, but to avoid killing them if possible, 
which I heartily agreed to do. With these 
simple injunctions the officer gave me my port 
clearance free of charge, and 1 sailed on the 
same day, February 19, 1896. It was not with- 
out thoughts of strange and stirring adventure 
beyond all I had yet encountered that I now 
sailed into the country and very core of the 
savage Fuegians. 

A fair wind from Sandy Point brought me on 
the first day to St. Nicholas Bay. Seeing no 
signs of savages here, I came to anchor in eight 



in the Sloop ** Spray " 8i 

fathoms of water, where I lay all night at the 
foot of a mountain. From this point I had ex- 
periences with the terrific squalls, called willi- 
waws, which extended on through the strait to 
the Pacific. A full-blown williwaw will throw 
a ship, even without sail on, over on her beam 
ends ; but, like other gales, they cease now and 
then, if only for a short time. 

February 20 was my birthday, and I found 
myself alone, with hardly so much as a bird 
in sight, off Cape Froward, the southernmost 
point of the continent of America. By day- 
light in the morning I was getting my ship 
under way for the bout ahead. 

Thirty miles farther brought her to For- 
tescue Bay, and at once among signal-fires of 
the natives which now blazed up on all sides. 
At twelve o'clock that night, I gained anchor- 
age under the lee of a little island, and then pre- 
pared myself a cup of coffee, of which I was 
sorely in need ; for, to tell the truth, hard beat- 
ing in the heavy squalls and against the current 
had told on my strength. The wind had changed 
from fair to foul early in the evening. Finding 
that the anchor held, I drank my beverage, and 
named the place Coffee Island. It lies to the 
south of Charles Island, with only a narrow 
channel between. 



82 Around the World 

By daylight the next morning the Spray was 
again under way, beating hard ; but she came 
to in a cove in Charles Island, two and a half 
miles along on her course. Here she remained 
undisturbed two days, with both anchors down 
in a bed of kelp. Indeed, she might have re- 
mained undisturbed indefinitely had not the 
wind moderated ; for during these two days it 
blew so hard, that no boat could venture out on 
the strait, and the natives being away to other 
hunting-grounds, the island anchorage was safe. 
But at the end of the fierce wind-storm fair 
weather came ; then I weighed my anchors, 
and again sailed out upon the strait. 

Canoes manned by savages from Fortescue 
now came in pursuit. The wind falling light, 
they gained on me rapidly till coming within 
hail, when they ceased paddling, and a bow- 
legged savage stood up and called to me, 
** Yammerschooner ! yammerschooner ! " which 
is their begging term. I said, *' No ! " Now, I 
did not wish them to know I was alone, and so 
I stepped into the cabin, and, passing through 
the hold, came out at the fore-scuttle, changing 
my clothes as I went along. That made two 
men. Then the piece of bowsprit which I had 
sawed off at Buenos Aires, and which I had 
still on board, I arranged forward on the look- 



in the Sloop ^^ Spray'' 83 

out, dressed as a seaman, attaching a line by 
which I could pull it into motion. That made 
three of us, and we didn't want to ** yammer- 
schooner"; but for all that the savages came 
on faster than before. 

I saw that besides four at the paddles in the 
canoe nearest to me, there were others in the 
bottom, and that they were shifting hands often. 
At eighty yards I fired a shot across the 
bows of the nearest canoe, at which they all 
stopped, but only for a moment. Seeing that 
they persisted in coming nearer, I fired the 
second shot so close to the chap who wanted 
to ^'yammerschooner " that he changed his 
mind quickly enough and bellowed in Spanish, 
"All right! I am going to the island," and 
sitting down in his canoe, he rubbed one side of 
his head for some time. I was thinking of the 
good port captain's advice when I pulled the 
trigger, and aimed pretty straight ; however, 
a miss was as good as a mile for Mr. '' Black 
Pedro," as he it was, and no other, a leader in 
several bloody massacres. He made for the 
island now, and the others followed him. I 
knew by his Spanish lingo and by his full beard 
that he was the villain I have named, mon- 
grel, and the worst murderer in Tierra del 
Fuego. The authorities had been in search 



84 Aroitnd the World 

of him for two years. The Fuegians are not 
bearded. 

So much for the first day among the savages. 
I came to anchor at midnight in Three Island 
Cove, about twenty miles along from Fortescue 
Bay. I saw on the opposite side of the strait 
signal-fires, and heard the barking of dogs, but 
where I lay it was quite deserted by natives. 
I always took it as a sign that where I found 
birds sitting about, or seals on the rocks, I 
should not find savage Indians. Seals are 
never plentiful in these waters, but in Three 
Island Cove I saw one on the rocks, and other 
signs of the absence of savage man. 

On the next day the wind was again blowing 
a gale, and although she was in the lee of the 
land, the sloop dragged her anchors, so that I 
had to get her under way and beat farther into 
the cove, where I came to in a landlocked pool. 
At another time or place this would have been 
a rash thing to do, and it was safe now only 
from the fact that the gale which drove me to 
shelter would keep the Indians from crossing 
the strait. This being the case, I went ashore 
with gun and axe on an island, where I could 
not in any event be surprised, and there felled 
trees and split about a cord of fire-wood, which 
loaded my small boat several times. 



in the Sloop ^^ Spi^ay'' 85 

While I carried the wood, though I was 
morally sure there were no savages near, I 
never once went to or from the skiff without 
my gun. While I had that and a clear field of 
over eighty yards about me I felt safe. 

The trees on the island, very scattering, were 
a sort of beech and a stunted cedar, both of 
which made good fuel. Even the green limbs 
of the beech, which seemed to possess a resin- 
ous quality, burned readily in my great drum- 
stove. In the Strait of Magellan the great- 
est vigilance was necessary, but I took care 
against all kinds of surprises, whether by ani- 
mals or by the elements. In this instance I 
reasoned that I had all about me the greatest 
danger of the voyage — the treachery of cun- 
ning savages, for which I must be particularly 
on the alert. 

The Spray sailed from Three Island Cove in 
the morning after the gale went down, but was 
glad to return for shelter from another sudden 
gale. Sailing again on the following day, she 
fetched Borgia Bay, a few miles on her course, 
where vessels had anchored from time to time 
and had nailed boards on the trees ashore with 
name and date of harboring carved or painted. 
Nothing else could I see to indicate that civil- 
ized man had ever been there. I had taken a 



86 Around the World 

survey of the gloomy place with my spy-glass 
and was getting my boat out to land and take 
notes, when the Chilean gun-boat Huemul came 
in, and officers, coming on board, advised me 
to leave the place at once, a thing that re- 
quired little eloquence to persuade me to do. 
I accepted the captain's kind offer of a tow to 
the next anchorage, at the place called Notch 
Cove, eight miles farther along, where I should 
be clear of the worst of the Fuegians. 

We made anchorage at the cove about dark 
that night, while the wind came down in fierce 
williwaws from the mountains. An instance of 
Magellan weather was afforded when the Hue- 
mul, a well-appointed gun-boat of great power, 
after attempting on the following day to pro- 
ceed on her voyage, w^as obliged by sheer 
force of the wind to return and take up anchor- 
age again and remain till the gale abated, and 
lucky she was to get back ! 

Meeting this vessel was a little godsend. 
She was commanded and officered by high-class 
sailors and educated gentlemen. 

I was left alone the next day, for then the 
Htiemtd put out on her voyage, the gale having 
abated. I spent a day taking in wood and 
water ; by the end of that time the weather was 
fine. Then I sailed from the desolate place. 



in the Sloop '' Spray ^^ %J 

Tliere is little more to be said concerning 
t.he Spray s first passage through the strait that 
wbuld differ from what I have already record- 
ed. She anchored and weighed anchor many 
times, and beat many days against the current, 
till finally she gained anchorage and shelter for 
the night at Port Tamar, with Cape Pillar in 
sight to the west. Here 1 felt the throb of the 
great ocean *that lay before me. I knew now 
that I had put a world behind me, and that I 
was opening out another world ahead. I had 
passed the haurits of savages. Great piles of 
granite mountains of bleak and lifeless aspect 
were now astern ; on some of them not even a 
speck of moss had ever grown. There was an 
unfinished newness all about the land now in 
sight. On the h/.U back of Port Tamar a small 
beacon had been thrown up, the only indication 
that man had ever been there. 

Throughout the whole of the strait west of 
Cape Froward I saw no animals except the 
dogs of the sava^'^es and the savages them- 
selves. These I saw often enough, and heard 
their dogs yelping night and day. Birds 
were not plentiful. The scream of a wild fowl, 
which I took for a loon, sometimes startled me 
with its piercing cry. The steam-boat duck, so 
called because it propels itself over the sea with 



88 Around the World 

its wings, and resembles a miniature side-wheel 
steamer in its motion, was sometimes seen scur> 
rjing ahead. It never flys, but, hitting tbe 
water instead of the air with its wings, it moves 
faster than a row-boat or a canoe The few fur- 
seals I saw were very shy ; r '^ I saw 
next to none at all. I din a ; in- 
deed, I seldom or never pi.i during 
the whole voyage. Here 'r > found 
great abundance of mu xellent 
quality. I fared sumptuulu■^ There 
was a sor£ of swan, smaller .-.iiai. luscovy 
duck, which might have been, brougnt down 
with the gun, but in the loneliness of life about 
the dreary country I found myself in no mood 
to make one life less, except in self-defence. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 89 



CHAPTER VIII 

From Cape Pillar into the Pacific — In the grasp of a Cape Horn 
tempest — Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure — Reaching 
the strait again by way of Cockburn Channel — The savages 
learn the usj of carpet-tacks — A series of fierce Williwaws — 
Again sailing westward. 

It was the 3t! of March when the Spray sailed 
from Port Tamar direct for Cape Pillar, with 
the wind from the northeast, which I fervently 
hoped might hold till she cleared the land ; but 
there was no such good luck in store. It soon 
began to rain and thicken in the northwest, 
boding no good. The Spray neared Cape Pillar 
rapidly, and, nothing loath, plunged into the 
Pacific Ocean at once, taking her first bath of it 
in the gathering storm. There was no turning 
back even had I wished to do so, for the land 
was now shut out by the darkness of night. 
The wind freshened, and I took in a third reef. 
The sea was confused and treacherous. I saw 
now only the gleaming crests of the waves. 
They showed white teeth while the sloop bal- 
anced over them. " Everything for an offing," 
I cried, and I carried on all the sail she would 
bear. 



90 Around the World 

She ran all night with a free sheet, but un the 
morning of March 4 the wind shifter^ ^o south- 
west, then back suddenly to r -'- ^t. and 
blew with terrific force. The ^>cd 

of her sails, then bore off undci es. 

No ship in the world could have - . up 
against so violent a gale. Knowing;" that this 
storm might continue for many days, and that 
it would be impossible to work back to the 
westward along the coast outside of Tierra del 
Fuego, I had reason to think that I should be 
obliged to sail east-about aftur all. The only 
course for my present safety L y in keeping her 
before the wind. And so she drove southeast, 
as though about to round the Horn, while the 
waves rose and fell and bellowed with never- 
ending fury ; but the Hand that held these held 
also the Spray. She was running now with a 
reefed forestaysail, the sheets' flat amidship. I 
paid out two long ropes astern to steady her 
course and to break combing seas, and I lashed 
the helm amidship. In this trim she ran before 
it, shipping never a sea. Even while the storm 
raged at its worst, my ship was wholesome and 
noble. My mind as to her seaworthiness was 
put at ease for aye. 

When all had been done that I could do for 
the safety of the vessel, I got to the fore-scuttle. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 91 

tbetween seas, and prepared a pot of coffee 
over a wood fire, and made a good Irish stew. 
Tlien, as before and afterward on the Spray, 
I insisted on warm meals. In the tide-race off 
Cape Pillar, however, where the sea was mar- 
vellously high, uneven, and crooked, my appe- 
tite was slim, and for a time I postponed cook- 
ing. (Confidentially, I was sea-sick !) 

In no part of the world could a rougher sea 
be found than at this point, namely, off Cape 
Pillar, the grim sentinel of the Horn. 

Farther offshore, while the sea was majestic, 
there was less apprehension of danger. There 
the Spray rode, like a bird over the crest of the 
waves, or sat composedly for a moment deep 
down in the hollow between seas ; and so she 
drove on. These days passed, as other days, 
but with always a thrill — yes, of delight. 

On the fourth day of the gale, rapidly nearing 
the pitch of Cape Horn, I inspected my chart 
and pricked off the course and distance to Port 
Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, where I might 
find my way and i*efit, when I saw through a 
rift in the clouds a high mountain, about seven 
leagues away on the port beam. The fierce 
edge of the gale by this time had blown off, and 
I had already bent a squaresail on the boom in 
place of the mainsail, which was torn to rags. 



92 Arotmd the World 

I hauled in the trailing ropes, hoisted this awk 
ward sail reefed, the forestaysail being '.Iready 
set, and under this sail brought her at ance on 
the wind, heading for what appeared as an island 
in the sea. So it turned out to be, thoiii;h not 
the one I had supposed. 

I was exultant over the prospect of once 
more entering the Strait of Magellan and beat- 
ing through again into the P"-' •, for it was 
more than rough on the o ^l of Tierra 

del Fuego. It was indec nis sea. 

Under pressure of the suiai. juld set 

the Spray made for the lanu *ikv^ ice-horse, 
and steering her over the crests of the waves 
so that she might not trip Avas nice work. I 
stood at the helm now and made the most of it. 

Night had already closed when I saw breakers 
ahead. At this 1 •'« re ship aad stood offshore, 
but was immediat > tartled by t . tremendous 
roaring of break ^ain ahead and on the lee 

bow. This puz: le, for there should have 

been no broken w where f supposed myself 

to be. I kept off >od bit, then wore round, 
but finding broken \^ iter also there, threw her 
head again offshore. In this way, among dan- 
gers, I spent the rest ot the night. Hail and 
sleet in the fierce squnlls cut my flesh till the 
blood trickled over my face ; but what of that? 



ill the Sloop " Spray " 93 

When daylight came I found that the sloop 
was in the midst of the Milky Way of the sea, 
which is northwest of Cape Horn, and that it 
was the white breakers of a huge sea over 
sunken rocks which had threatened to engulf 
her through ihe night. It was Fury Island I 
had sighted and steered for, and what a pano- 
rama was before me now and all around ! What 
could I do but fill away among the breakers 
and find a c'hannel between them, now that it 
was day? Svnce she had escaped the rocks 
through the nig"ht, surely she would find her 
way by daylight." This was the greatest sea 
adventure of my iife. God knows how my ves- 
sel escaped. 

The sloop at last reached inside of small isl- 
ands that sheltered^ her in smooth water. Then 
I climbed the mast'- to survey the wild scene 
outside. The great naturalist Darwin looked 
over this sea-scape from the deck of the Beagle, 
and wrote vividly in his journal concerning it. 

The Spray s good lil^ck followed fast. As she 
sailed along through ^a labyrinth of islands, I 
discovered that she wa\s in Cockburn Channel, 
which leads into the S\trait of Magellan at a 
point opposite Cape F:t*oward, and that she 
was already passing ThieWes' Bay, suggestively 
named. And at night, iMarch 8, behold, she 



94 Around the World 

was at anchor in a snug cove at the Turn ! 
Every heart-beat on the Spray now counted 
thanks. 

Here I pondered on the events of the last 
few days, and, strangely enough, instead of 
feeling rested from sitting or lying down, I 
now began to feel jaded and worn ; but a hot 
meal of venison stew soon put me right, so 
that I could sleep. As drowsiness came on I 
sprinkled the deck with tacks, and then I turned 
in, bearing in mind the advice of my old friend 
Samblich that I was not to step ^/n them myself. 
I saw to it carefully that m.)st of them stood 
point up ; for when the Spra^y passed Thieves' 
Bay two canoes put out anf^^ followed in her 
wake, and there was no disg;uising the fact any 
longer that I was alone. 

Now, it is well known tha[t one cannot step on 
a tack without saying som^ething about it. A 
pretty good Christian will whistle when he 
steps on the sharp end of h carpet-tack ; a sav- 
age will howl and claw Jthe air, and that was 
just what happened th^vit night about twelve 
o'clock, while I was asloiep in the cabin, where 
the savages thought thjey had the better of me, 
sloop and all, but ch^Jlnged their minds when 
they stepped on decl|t, for then they thought 
that I or somebody Hse.had them. I had no 



in the Sloop '^ Spray'' 95 

need of a dog ; they howled like a pack of 
hounds. I had hardly use for a gun. They 
jumped pell-mell, some into their canoes and 
some into the sea, and there was a deal of free 
language over it as they went. I fired several 
guns when I came on deck, to let the rascals 
know that I was at home, and then I turned in 
again, feeling sure I should not be disturbed 
any more by people who left in so great a 
hurry. 

The Fuegians, being cruel, are naturally cow- 
ards ; they regard a rifle with superstitious fear. 
The only real danger one could see that might 
come from their quarter would be from allow- 
ing them to surround one within bow-shot, or to 
anchor within range where they might lie in 
ambush. As for their coming on deck at night, 
even had I not put tacks about, I could have 
cleared them off by shots from the cabin and 
the hold. I always kept a quantity of ammu- 
nition within reach in the hold and in the cabin 
and in the forepeak, so that retreating to any of 
these places I could hold the situation simply 
by shooting up through the deck. 

Perhaps the greatest danger to be appre- 
hended was from the use of fire. Every canoe 
carries fire ; nothing is thought of that, for it is 
their custom to communicate by smoke-signals. 



96 Around the IVorld 

The harmless brand that lic;s siiiouldcriiig in the 
bottom of one of their canoes might be ablaze 
in one's cabin if he were not on the alert. The 
port ca]>tain of Sandy Point warned me partic- 
nlarly of this dang< • . Only a short time before 
they had fired a Chileau gun-boat by throwing 
brands in through the stern windows of the 
cabin. The Spray had no o[)enings in the cabin 
or deck, except two scuttles, and these were 
guarded by fastenings which could not be un- 
done without waking me if I were asleep. 

On the morning of the 9th, after a refreshing 
rest and a warm breakfast, and after I had 
swept up the tacks, 1 g(;t out wiiat spare can- 
vas there was on board, and began to sew the 
pieces together in the shape of a peak for my 
squarenuiinsail, the tarpaulin. The day to all 
appearances promised line weather and light 
winds, but appearances in Tierra del Fuego do 
not always count. While I was wondering 
why no trees grew on the slope abreast of the 
ancliorage, half minded to lay by the sail-mak- 
ing and go on shore with my gun and inspect 
a while bowlder on the beach near the brook, 
a williwaw came down with such terrific 
force as to carry the Spray, with two anch- 
ors down, like a feather out of the cove and 
away into deep water. No wonder trees did 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 97 

not grow on the side of that hilK Great Boreas ! 
a tree would need to be al', roots to hold on 
against such a furious wind.. 

From the cove to the nearest land to leeward 
was a long drift, however, and I had ample time 
to weigh both anchors before the sloop came 
near any danger, and so no harm came of it. 
I saw no more savages that day or the next; 
they probably had some sign by which they 
knew of the coming williwaws ; at least, they 
were wise in not being afloat even on the sec- 
ond day, for I had no sooner gotten to work at 
sail-making again, after the anchor was down, 
than the wind, as on the day before, picked the 
sloop up and flung her seaward with a ven- 
geance, anchor and all, as before. This fierce 
wind, usual to the Magellan country, continued 
on through the day, and swept the sloop by 
several miles of steep bluffs and precipices over- 
hanging a bold shore of unusually wild and 
uninviting appearance. I was not sorry to get 
away from it, though in doing so it was no 
Elysian shore to which I shaped my course. 
I kept on sailing in hope, since I had no choice 
but to go on, heading across for St. Nicholas 
Bay, where I had cast anchor February 19. It 
was now the loth of March ! Upon reaching 
the bay the second time I had circumnavigated 



98 



Around the World 



the wildest part of desolate Tierra del Fuego. 
The sea was turbulent, and by the merest acci- 
dent the Spray saved her bones from the rocks, 
coming into the bay. The parting of a stay- 
sail-sheet in a williwaw, when she was plunging 
into the storm, brought me forward to see in- 
stantly a dark cliff ahead and breakers so close 
under the bows that I felt surely lost, and 
in my thoughts cried, " Is the hand of fate 
against me, after all, leading me in the end to 
this dark spot ? " I sprang aft again, unheed- 
ing the flapping sail, and threw the wheel over, 
expecting, as the sloop came down into the 
hollow of a wave, to feel her timbers smash 
under me on the rocks. But at the touch 
of her helm she swung clear of the danger, 
and in the next moment was in the lee of the 
land. 

It was the small island in the middle of the 
bay for which the sloop had been steering, and 
which she made with such unerring aim as 
nearly to run it down. Farther along in the 
bay was the anchorage, which I managed to 
reach, but before I could get the anchor down 
another squall caught the sloop and whirled 
her round like a top and carried her away, 
altogether to leeward of the bay. Still farther 
to leeward was a great headland, and I bore off 



in the Sloop '* Spray " 99 

for that. This was retracing my course toward 
Sandy Point, for the gale was from the south- 
west. 

I had the sloop soon under good control, 
however, and in a short time rounded to under 
the lee of a mountain, where the sea was as 
smooth as a mill-pond, and the sails flapped and 
hung limp while she carried her way close in. 
Here I thought I would anchor and rest till 
morning, the depth being eight fathoms very 
close to the shore. But it was interesting to 
see, as I let go the anchor, that it did not reach 
bottom before another williwaw struck down 
from this mountain and carried the sloop off 
faster than I could pay out cable. Therefore, 
instead of resting, I had to heave up the anchor 
with fifty fathoms of cable hanging up and 
down in deep water. This was in that part of 
the strait called Famine Reach. Dismal Fam- 
ine Reach ! On the sloop's crab-windlass I 
worked the rest of the night. 

It was daybreak when the anchor was at the 
hawse. By this time the wind had gone down, 
and cat's-paw took the place of williwaws, while 
the sloop drifted slowly toward Sandy Point. 
She came within sight of ships at anchor in the 
roads, and I was more than half minded to put 
in for new sails, but the wind coming out from 

LdFC. 



lOO Around the World 

the northeast, which was fair for the other direc- 
tion, I turned the prow of the Spray westward 
once more for the Pacific, to traverse a second 
time the second half of my first course through 
the strait. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' loi 



CHAPTER IX 

Repairing the Spray'' s sails — Savages again — An obstreperous an- 
chor — An encounter with Black Pedro — A visit to the steam- 
ship Colombia — On the defensive against a fleet of canoes — A 
record of voyages through the strait. 

I WAS determined to rely on my own small 
resources to repair the damages of the great gale 
which drove me off from Cape Pillar toward 
the Horn. And so when I had got back into the 
strait, by way of Cockburn Channel, I did not 
proceed eastward for help at the Sandy Point 
settlement, but turning again to the northwest- 
ward, set to work with my palm and needle at 
every opportunity to refit. It was slow work; 
but little by little the squaresail on the boom ex- 
panded to the dimensions of a serviceable main- 
sail. If it was not the best-setting sail afloat, 
it was at least strongly made and would stand a 
hard blow. A ship, meeting the Spray long 
afterward, reported her as wearing a mainsail 
of some improved design and patent reefer, but 
that was not the case. 

The Spray for a few days after the storm en- 
joyed fine weather, and made fair time through 



I02 Around the World 

the strait for the distance of twenty miles, 
which, in these days of many adversities, I 
called a long run. The weather, I say, was fine 
for a few days ; but it brought little rest. Care 
for the safety of my vessel, and even for my 
own life, was in no wise lessened by the absence 
of heavy weather. Indeed, the peril was even 
greater, inasmuch as the savages on compar- 
atively fine days ventured forth on their ma- 
rauding excursions, while in boisterous weather 
they disappeared from sight, their wretched 
canoes being frail and undeserving the name of 
craft at all. This being so, I rather enjoyed 
gales of wind, and the Spray was never long 
without them during her struggles about Cape 
Horn. I became in a measure hardened to 
the life. At Snug Bay, where I anchored at 
gray morning after passing Cape Froward, I 
saw, when broad day appeared, that two canoes 
which I had eluded by sailing all night were 
now entering the same bay stealthily under the 
shadow of the high headland. They were 
manned by a dozen or more savages, armed 
with spears and bows. At a shot from my rifle 
across the bows, both turned aside into a small 
creek out of range. In danger now of being 
flanked by the savages in the bush close aboard, 
1 was obliged to hoist the sails, which I had 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 103 

barely lowered, and make across to the oppo- 
site side of the strait, a distance of six miles. 
But now I was put to my wit's end as to how I 
should weigh anchor, for through an accident 
to the windlass right here I could not budge it. 
However, I set all sail and filled away, first 
hauling short by hand. The sloop dragged 
her anchor loose as though it was meant to be 
always towed in this way under the bow, and 
with it she towed a ton or more of kelp from a 
reef in the bay, the wind blowing a wholesale 
breeze. 

Meanwhile I worked till blood started from 
my fingers. I watched at the same time, and 
sent a bullet whistling landward whenever I 
saw a limb or a twig move ; for I kept a gun 
always at hand, and had an Indian appeared 
then within range, it would have been a declara- 
tion of war. As it was, however, a little of my 
own blood was all that was spilt. '' Sea-cuts " 
in my hands from pulling on hard, wet ropes 
were sometimes painful and often bled freely ; 
but these healed when I finally got away from 
the strait into fine weather. 

After clearing Snug Bay I hauled the sloop 
to the wind, repaired the windlass, and hove 
the anchor to the hawse, made it fast on the 
bow, and then stretched across to a port of 



I04 Around the World 

refuge under a high mountain about six miles 
away, and came to in nine fathoms close under 
the face of a perpendicular cliff. Here my own 
voice answered back, and I named the place 
" Echo Mountain." Seeing dead trees farther 
along where the shore was broken, I made a 
landing for fuel, taking, besides my axe, a rifle, 
which on these days I never left far from hand ; 
but I saw no living thing here except a few- 
insects. 

I made haste the following morning to be 
under way after a night of wakefulness on the 
weird shore. Before weighing anchor, how- 
ever, I prepared a cup of warm coffee over a 
brisk wood fire in my great Montevideo stove. 
The Spray now reached away for Coffee Island, 
which I had sighted on my birthday, February 
20, 1896. 

There she encountered another gale, that 
brought her in the lee of great Charles Island 
for shelter. On a bluff point on the island 
were signal-fires, and a tribe of savages, mus- 
tered here since my first trip through the strait, 
manned their canoes to put off for the sloop. 
I made signs that one canoe might come along- 
side, while the sloop ranged about under sail 
in the lee of the land. The others I motioned 
to keep off, and incidentally laid a rifle in sight. 



in the Sloop '^ Spray '^ 105 

close at hand, on the top of the cabin. In the 
canoe that came alongside, crjang their nev- 
erending begging word *' yammerschooner," 
were two squaws and one Indian, the hardest 
specimens of humanity I had ever seen in any 
of my travels. " Yammerschooner " was their 
plaint when they pushed off from the shore, 
and '' yammerschooner " it was when they got 
alongside. 

The squaws beckoned for food, while the 
Indian, a black-visaged savage, stood sulkily 
as if he took no interest at all in the matter, 
but on turning my back for some biscuits and 
jerked beef for the squaws, he sprang on deck 
and confronted me, saying in Spanish jargon 
that we had met before. I thought I recog- 
nized the tone of his " yammerschooner," and 
now his full beard identified him as the Black 
Pedro whom, it was true, I had met before. 

" Where are the rest of the crew ? " he asked 
in Spanish, as he looked uneasily around, ex- 
pecting hands, maybe, to come out of the fore- 
scuttle and deal him his just deserts for many 
murders. *' About three weeks ago," said he, 
** when you passed up here, I saw three men on 
board. Where are the other two ? " I answered 
him briefly that the same crew was still on 
board. " But," said he, " I see you are doing all 



io6 Around the World 

the work," and with a leer he added, as he 
glanced at the mainsail, '' you are a strong man." 
I explained that I did all the work in the day, 
while the rest of the crew slept, so that they 
would be fresh to watch for Indians at night. 
I was interested in the subtle cunning of this 
savage, knowing him, as I did, better perhaps 
than he was aware. Even had I not been ad- 
vised before I sailed from Sandy Point, I should 
have measured him for an archvillain now. 
Moreover, one of the squaws, with that spark 
of kindliness which is somehow found in the 
breast of even the lowest savage, warned me 
by a sign to be on my guard, or Black Pedro 
would do me harm. There was no need of the 
warning, however, for I was on my guard from 
the first, and at that moment held a smart re- 
volver in my hand ready for instant service. 

'' When you sailed through here before," he 
said, " you fired a shot at me," adding with some 
warmth that it was "' very bad." I affected not to 
understand, and said, '' You have lived at Sandy 
Point, have you not?" He answered frankly 
"Yes,'* and appeared all at once delighted to 
meet one who had come from the dear old place. 
"At the mission? " I queried. "Why, yes," he 
replied, stepping forward as if to embrace an 
old friend. I motioned him back, for I did not 



in the Sloop '^ Spray'' 107 

share his flattering humor. " And you know 
Captain Pedro Samblich ? " continued 1. 
"■ Yes," said the villain, who had killed a kins- 
man of Samblich — *' yes, indeed ; he is a great 
friend of mine." 

" I know it," said I. Samblich had told me 
to shoot him on sight. Pointing to my rifle 
on the cabin, he wanted to know how many 
times it fired. When 1 explained to him that 
that gun kept right on shooting, his jaw fell, 
and he spoke of getting away. I did not hinder 
him from going. I gave the squaws biscuits 
and beef, and one of them gave me several 
lumps of tallow in exchange, and I think it 
worth mentioning that she did not offer me the 
smallest pieces, but with some trouble handed 
me the largest of all the pieces in the canoe. 
No Christian could have done more. Before 
pushing off from the sloop the cunning savage 
asked for matches, and made as if to reach with 
the end of his spear the box I was about to give 
him ; but I held it toward him on the muzzle of 
my rifle, the one that " kept on shooting." The 
chap picked the box off the gun gingerl)^ 
enough, to be sure, but he jumped when I said, 
''Look out," at which the squaws laughed and 
seemed not at all displeased. There was a 
good understanding among us all. 



io8 Around the World 

From Charles Island the Spray crossed over 
to Fortescue Bay, where she anchored and 
spent a comfortable night under the lee of high 
land, while the wind howled outside. The bay 
was deserted now. They were Fortescue Ind- 
ians whom I had seen at the island, and I felt 
quite sure they could not follow the Spray in 
the present hard blow. Not to neglect a pre- 
caution, however, I sprinkled tacks on deck 
before I turned in. 

On the following day the loneliness of the 
place was broken by the appearance of a great 
steam-ship, making for the anchorage with a 
lofty bearing. I knew the sheer, the model, and 
the poise. I threw out my flag, and directly 
saw the Stars and Stripes flung to the breeze 
from the great ship. 

The wind had then abated, and toward night 
the savages made their appearance from the 
island, going direct to the steamer to " yammer- 
schooner." Then they came to the Spray to 
beg more, or to steal all, declaring that they 
got nothing from the steamer. Black Pedro 
here came alongside again. My own brother 
could not have been more delighted to see me, 
and he begged me to lend him my rifle to shoot 
a guanaco for me in the morning. I assured the 
fellow that if I remained there another day I 



in the Sloop "" Spray ^^ 109 

would lend him the gun, but I had no mind to 
remain. I gave him a cooper's draw-knife and 
some other small implements which would be 
of service in canoe-making, and bade him be 
off. 

Under the cover of darkness that night I 
went to the steamer, which I found to be the 
Colombia, Captain Henderson, from New York, 
bound for San Francisco. I carried all my guns 
along with me, in case it should be necessary 
to fight my way back. In the chief mate of the 
Colombia, Mr. Hannibal, I found an old friend, 
and he referred affectionately to days in Manila 
when we were there together, he in the Southern 
Cross and I in the Northern Light, both ships as 
beautiful as their names. 

The Colombia had an abundance of fresh 
stores on board. The captain gave his steward 
some order, and I remember that the guileless 
young man asked me if I could manage, besides 
other things, a few cans of milk and a cheese. 
When I offered my Montevideo gold for the 
supplies, the captain roared like a lion and told 
me to put my money up. It was a glorious 
outfit of provisions of all kinds that I got. 

Returning to the Spray, where I found all se- 
cure, I prepared for an early start in the morn- 
ing. It was agreed that the steamer should 



no Around the World 

blow her whistle for me if first on the move. I 
watched the steamer, off and on, through the 
night for the pleasure alone of seeing her elec- 
tric lights, in contrast to the Fuegian canoe 
with a brand of fire. The sloop was the first 
under way, but the Colombia, soon following, 
passed, and saluted as she went by. Had the 
captain given me his steamer, his company 
would have been no worse off than they were 
two or three months later. On her second trip 
from San Francisco to Panama she was wrecked 
on the rocks of the California coast. 

The Spray was again beating against wind 
and current. 

A few miles farther along was a large 
steamer ashore, bottom up. Passing this place, 
the sloop ran into a streak of light wind, and 
then — a most remarkable condition for strait 
weather — it fell entirely calm. Signal-fires 
sprang up at once on all sides, and then more 
than twenty canoes hove in sight, all heading 
for the Spray. As they came within hail, their 
savage crews cried, in scraps of Spanish mixed 
with their own jargon, "Friend yammer- 
schooner," '' Anchor here," "■ Good port here." 
I had no thought of anchoring in their "good 
port.** I hoisted the sloop's flag and fired a 
gun, which they might consider as a friendly 



in the Sloop '' Spray " in 

salute. Thej drew up in a semicircle, but kept 
outside of eighty yards, which in self-defence 
would have been the death-line. 

In their mosquito fleet was a ship's boat 
stolen from a murdered crew. Six savages 
paddled this rather awkwardly with the blades 
of oars which had been broken off. Two of the 
savages standing erect wore sea-boots, and 
this sustained the suspicion that they had fallen 
upon some luckless ship's crew, and also added 
a hint that they had already visited the Spray's 
deck, and would now, if they could, try her 
again. They passed down the strait at a dis- 
tance of a hundred yards from the sloop, in an 
offhand manner and as if bound to Fortescue 
Bay. This I judged to be a piece of strategy, 
and so kept a sharp lookout over a small island 
which soon came in range between them and 
the sloop, hiding them from view. The Spray 
was now drifting helplessly with the tide, and 
in danger of going on the rocks, for there was 
no anchorage. And, sure enough, I finally saw 
a movement in the grass just on top of the isl- 
and, which is called Bonet Island and is one 
hundred and thirty-six feet high. I fired sev- 
eral shots over the place, and saw no other sign 
of the savages. As the sloop swept past the 
island, the rebound of the tide carrying her 



112 Arotuid the World 

clear, there on the other side was the boat, 
exposing their cunning and treachery. A stiff 
breeze, coming up suddenly, now scattered the 
canoes while it freed the sloop from a danger- 
ous position, albeit the wind, though friendly, 
was still ahead. 

The Spray, flogging against current and 
wind, made Borgia Ba}^ on the following after- 
noon, and cast anchor there for the second 
time. I would, if I could, describe the moon- 
lit scene on the strait at midnight after I had 
cleared the savages and Bonet Island. A 
heavy cloud-bank that had swept across the 
sky then cleared away, and the night became 
suddenly as light as day, or nearly so ; for be- 
sides the moon, the beautiful Southern cross, 
great Orion, and other bright constellations 
shed their light. A high mountain was mir- 
rored in the channel ahead, and the Spray sail- 
ing along with her shadow was as two sloops 
on the sea. 

The sloop being moored, I threw out my 
skiff, and with axe and gun landed at the head 
of the cove, and filled a barrel of water from a 
stream. Then, as before, there was no sign of 
Indians at the place. Finding it quite deserted, 
I rambled about near the beach for an hour or 
more. The fine weather seemed, somehow, to 



in the Sloop ^' Spray'' 113 

add loneliness to the place, and when I came 
upon a spot where a grave was marked I went 
no farther. 

An air of depression was about the place, and 
I hurried back to the sloop to forget myself 
again in the voyage. 

Early the next morning I stood out from 
Borgia Bay, and off Cape Quod, where the 
wind fell light, I moored the sloop by kelp in 
twenty fathoms of water, and held her there a 
few hours against a three-knot current. That 
night I anchored in Langara Cove, a few miles 
farther along, where on the following day I 
discovered wreckage and goods washed up 
from the sea. Then I worked all day, salving 
and boating off a cargo to the sloop. The bulk 
of the goods was tallow in casks and lumps of 
tallow freed from casks ; and embedded in the 
sea-weed was a barrel of wine, which I towed 
alongside. I hoisted them all in with the 
throat-halyards, which I took to the windlass. 
The weight of some of the casks was over 
eight hundred pounds. 

There were no Indians about Langara ; evi- 
dently there had not been any since the great 
gale which had washed the wreckage on shore. 
Probably it was the same gale that drove the 
Spray off Cape Horn, from March 3 to 8. At 



114 Around the World 

this place I filled a barrel of water at night, and 
on the following day sailed with a fair wind. 

I had not sailed far, however, when I came 
abreast of more tallow in a small cove, where I 
anchored, and boated off as before. It rained 
and snowed hard all that day, and it was no 
light work carrying tallow in my arms over the 
bowlders on the beach. But I worked on till 
the Spray was loaded with a full cargo. I was 
happy then in the prospect of doing a good 
business farther along on the voyage. I sailed 
from the cove about noon, greased from top to 
toe, while my vessel was tallowed from keelson 
to truck. My cabin, as well as the hold and 
deck, was stowed full of tallow. It was now 
April 2 — autumn in Tierra del Fuego. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 115 



CHAPTER X 

Running to Port Angosto in a Snow-storm — A defective sheet- 
rope places the Spray in peril — The Spray as a target for a 
Fuegian arrow — The island of Allan Eric — Again in the 
open Pacific — The run to the island of Juan Fernandez — ^An 
absentee king — At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage. 

Another gale had then sprung up, but the 
wind was still fair, and I had only twenty-six 
miles to run for Port Angosto, a dreary enough 
place, where, however, I should find a safe har- 
bor in which to refit and stow cargo. I carried 
on sail to make the harbor before dark, and the 
Spray fairly flew along, all covered with snow, 
which fell thick and fast, till she looked like a 
winter bird. Between the storm-bursts I saw 
the headland of my port, and was steering for 
it when a flaw of wind caught the mainsail by 
the lee, jibed it over, and dear ! dear ! how 
nearly was this the cause of disaster ; for the 
sheet parted and the boom unshipped, and it 
was close upon night. I worked till the per- 
spiration poured from my body to get things 
adjusted and in working order before the 
sloop should be driven to leeward of the port 



ii6 Around the World 

of refuge. Even then I did not get the boom 
shipped in its saddle. She was at the en- 
trance of the harbor before I could get this 
done, and it was time to haul her to or lose the 
port ; but in that condition, like a bird with a 
broken wing, she made the haven. The acci- 
dent which so endangered my vessel and cargo 
came of a defective sheet-rope, one made from 
sisal, a treacherous fibre, which has caused a 
deal of strong language among sailors. 

I did not run the Spray into the inner harbor 
of Port Angosto, but came to inside a bed of 
kelp under a steep bluff on the port hand going 
in. It was an exceedingly snug nook, and to 
make doubly sure of holding on here against 
all williwaws I moored her with two anchors 
and secured her, besides, by cables to trees. 

I remained at Port Angosto some days, busily 
employed about the sloop. I stowed the tallow 
from the deck to the hold, arranged my cabin 
in better order, and took in a good supply of 
wood and water. I also mended the sloop's 
sails and rigging, and fitted a jigger, which 
changed the rig to a yawl, though I called her 
a sloop just the same, the jigger being merely 
a temporary affair. 

I never forgot, even at the busiest time of 
my work, to have my rifie by me ready for 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 117 

instant use ; for I was of necessity within range 
of savages, and I had seen Fuegian canoes at 
this place when I anchored in the port, farther 
down the reach, on the first trip through the 
strait. I think it was on the second day, while 
I was busily employed about decks, that I heard 
the swish of something through the air close by 
my ear, and heard a '' zip "-like sound in the 
water, but saw nothing. Presently, however, I 
suspected that it was an arrow of some sort, 
for just then one passing not far from me struck 
the mainmast, where it stuck fast, vibrating 
from the shock. A savage was somewhere 
near, there could be no doubt about that, and 
so I threw up my old Martini-Henry rifle, and 
the first shot uncovered three Fuegians from 
a clump of bushes where they had been con- 
cealed. They made over the hills and I fired 
away a good many cartridges, aiming under 
their feet to encourage their climbing. My 
dear old gun woke up the hills, and at every 
report all three of the savages jumped as if 
shot ; but they kept on, and put Fuego real es- 
tate between themselves and the Spray as fast 
as their legs could carry them, I took care 
now, that all my firearms should be in order 
and that an extra supply of ammunition should 
be ready at hand. But the savages did not re- 



ii8 Aro2cnd the World 

turn, and although I put tacks on deck every 
night, I never discovered that any more visitors 
came, and I had only to sweep the deck of tacks 
carefully every morning after. 

As the autumn days went by, the season be- 
came more favorable for a chance to clear the 
strait with a fair wind, and so, after six attempts, 
being driven back each time, I was in no further 
haste to sail. The bad weather on my last re- 
turn to Port Angosto for shelter, brought the 
Chilean gun-boat Condor and the Argentine 
cruiser Azopardo into port. As soon as the lat- 
ter came to anchor, the commander sent a boat 
to the Spray with the message that he would 
take her in tow for Sandy Point if I would give 
up the voyage and return — the thing farthest 
from my mind. 

I procured some cordage and other small 
supplies from these vessels, and the officers of 
each of them mustered a supply of warm flan- 
nels, of which I was most in need. With these 
additions to my outfit, and with the vessel in 
good trim, though somewhat deeply laden, I 
was well prepared for another bout with the 
Southern, misnamed Pacific, Ocean. 

In the first week in April southeast winds, 
such as appear about Cape Horn in the fall and 
winter seasons, that is April, May, June, and 




3 

c/) 

3 
>-■ 
CQ 

< 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 119 

July, bringing better weather than that expe- 
rienced in the summer, began to disturb the 
upper clouds ; a little more patience, and the 
time would come for sailing with a fair wind. 

Of all the little haps and mishaps to the 
Spray at Port Angosto, of the many attempts 
to put to sea, and of each return for shel- 
ter, I have said enough. Of hindrances there 
were many ; but what of that ! On the thir- 
teenth day of April, and for the seventh and 
last time, she weighed anchor from that port. 
And my heart softened toward her when I 
thought of what she had gone through. An 
island that she had sailed around was traced on 
the charts as a point of land. I named it Allan 
Eric Island, after a worthy literary friend whom 
1 had met in strange by-places. I landed and 
put up a sign, '' Keep off the grass," which was 
a discoverer's right. 

At last, on the thirteenth of April, 1896, with 
a fair wind, the Spray carried me free of Tierra 
del Fuego. 

The wind blew hard, as nearly always it 
blows about Cape Horn, but she cleared the 
great tide-race off Cape Pillar and the Evange- 
listas, the outermost rocks of all, before it 
changed. I remained at the helm, humoring 
my vessel in the cross seas, for it was rough, 



I20 Around the World 

and I did not dare to let her take a straight 
course. It was necessary to change her course 
in the combing seas, to meet them with what 
skill I could when they rolled up ahead, and 
to keep off when they came up abeam. 

On the following morning,. April 14, only the 
tops of the highest mountains were in sight, 
and the Spray, making good headway on a 
northwest course, soon sank these out of sight. 
" Hurrah for the Spray ! ** I shouted to seals, 
sea-gulls, and penguins ; for there were no other 
living creatures about, and she had weathered 
all the dangers of Cape Horn. Moreover, she 
had on her voyage round the Horn salved a 
cargo of which she had not jettisoned a pound. 
And why should not one rejoice even in the 
main chance coming so of itself? 

I shook out a reef, and set the whole jib. The 
wind freshened as the sun rose half-mast or 
more, but softened again later in the day. 

One wave, in the evening, larger than others 
that had threatened all day, — one such as sailors 
call *' fine-weather seas," — broke over the sloop 
fore and aft. It washed over me at the helm, 
the last that swept over the Spray off Cape 
Horn. All my troubles were now astern ; sum- 
mer was ahead ; all the world was again before 
me. The wind was literally fair. INIy turn at 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 121 

the wheel was now up, and it was 5 P. M. I had 
stood at the helm since eleven o'clock the morn- 
ing before, or thirty hours. 

Then was the time to uncover my head, for I 
sailed alone with God. The vast ocean was 
again around me, and the horizon was unbroken 
by land. A few days later the Spray was un- 
der full sail, and I saw her for the first time 
with a jigger spread. Rapid changes went on 
in things all about while she headed for the 
tropics. New species of birds came around ; 
albatrosses fell back and became scarcer and 
scarcer; lighter gulls came in their stead, and 
pecked for crumbs in the sloop's wake. 

I was steering now for Juan Fernandez, and 
on the 26th of April, fifteen days out, the blue 
hills of the historic island, high among the 
clouds, could be seen about thirty miles off. A 
thousand emotions thrilled me now, and I bowed 
my head to the deck. I could find no other 
way of expressing myself. 

With a light wind the Spray stood close in to 
shore on the northeast side, where it fell calm 
and remained so all night. I saw the twinkling 
of a small light farther along in a cove, and fired 
a gun, but got no answer, and soon the light 
disappeared altogether. I heard the sea boom- 
ing against the cliffs all night, and realized that 



122 Around the World 

the ocean swell was still great, although from 
the deck of my little ship it was apparently 
small. From the cry of animals in the hills, 
which sounded fainter and fainter through the 
night, I judged that a light current was drifting 
the sloop from the land, though she seemed all 
night dangerously near the shore, for, the land 
being very high, appearances were deceptive. 
Soon after daylight I saw a boat putting out 
toward me. As it pulled near, it so happened 
that I picked up my gun, which was on the 
deck, meaning only to put it below ; but the peo- 
ple in the boat, seeing the piece in my hands, 
quickly turned and pulled back for shore, which 
was about four miles distant. There were six 
rowers in her, and I observed that they pulled 
with oars in oar-locks, after the manner of 
trained seamen, and so I knew they belonged 
to a civilized race ; but their opinion of me 
must have been anything but flattering when 
they mistook my purpose with the gun and 
pulled away with all their might. I made them 
understand by signs, but not without difficulty, 
that I did not intend to shoot, that I was sim- 
ply putting the piece in the cabin, and that I 
wished them to return. When they understood 
my meaning they came back and were soon on 
board. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 123 

I had already prepared a pot of coffee and a 
plate of doughnuts, of which, after some words 
of civility, the islanders partook with a will, 
after which they took the Spray in tow of their 
boat and made toward the island with her at 
the rate of a good three knots. The man they 
called king took the helm, and with whirling 
it up and down he so rattled the Spray that I 
thought she would never carry herself straight 
again. The others pulled away lustily with 
their oars. The king, I soon learned, was king 
only by courtesy. Having lived longer on the 
island than any other man in the world, — thirty 
years, — he was so dubbed. Juan Fernandez was 
then under the administration of a governor of 
Swedish nobility. The sea-breeze, coming in 
before long, filled the Spray's sails, and the ex- 
perienced Portuguese mariner piloted her to a 
safe berth in the bay, where she was moored to 
a buoy abreast the settlement. 



124 Aromid the World 



CHAPTER XI 

The islanders at Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee dough- 
nuts — The beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm — The moun- 
tain monument to Alexander Selkirk — A stroll with the 
children of the island — Westward ho ! with a friendly gale — 
A month's free sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun 
for guides — Sighting the Marquesas — Experience in reckon- 
ing. 

The Spray being secured, the islanders re- 
turned to the coffee and doughnuts, and so with 
a viev/ to business 1 hooked my steelyards to 
the boom at once, ready to weigh out tallow, 
and before the sun went down I taught the isl- 
anders the art of making buns and doughnuts, 
and then supplied them all with tallow. I did 
not charge a high price for what I sold, but the 
ancient and curious coins I got in payment, 
some of them from the wreck of a galleon sunk 
in the bay no one knows how long, I sold after- 
ward to antiquarians for more than face-value. 
In this way I made a reasonable profit. 

I found Juan Fernandez a lovely spot. The 
hills are well wooded, the valleys fertile, and 
pouring down through many ravines are streams 
of pure water. There are no serpents on the 



in the Sloop ""Spray'' 125 

island, and no wild beasts other than pigs and 
goats, of which I saw a number, with possibly 
a wild dog or two. The people lived without 
the use of rum or beer of any sort. There was 
not a police officer or a lawyer among them. 
The domestic economy of the island was simplic- 
ity itself. The people were all healthy, and the 
children all beautiful. There were about forty- 
five souls on the island all told. The adults 
were mostly from the mainland of South Amer- 
ica. One lady there, from Chile, who made a 
flying-jib for the vS/^'r^^j/, taking her pay in tallow, 
would be called a belle at Newport. Blessed 
island of Juan Fernandez I Why Alexander 
Selkirk ever left you is more than I can make 
out. 

Alexander Selkirk, it is well known, was the 
hero of Defoe's '' Robinson Crusoe," and while 
we know that Defoe located Crusoe on the Isl- 
and of Tobago off the Orinoco River, we still 
call Juan Fernandez Robinson Crusoe's Island, 
where the real hero sojourned. The reason of 
the adherance to the island in the Pacific is 
simply this : Fact is stronger than fiction, and 
so to the whole world Juan Fernandez is Robin- 
son Crusoe's Island. 

I of course made a pilgrimage to the lookout 
place at the top of the mountain, where Selkirk 



126 Around the World 

spent many days peering into the distance for 
the ship which came at last. From a tablet 
fixed into the face of the rock I copied these 
words, inscribed in Arabic capitals : 

IN MEMORY 
OF 

ALEXANDER SELKIRK, 

MARINER, 

A native of Largo, in the county of Fife, Scotland, who lived on 
this island in complete solitude for four years and four months. 
He was landed from the Cinque Ports galley, 96 tons, 18 guns, 
A.D. 1704, and was taken off in the Duke, privateer, 12th Febru- 
ary, 1709. He died Lieutenant of H. M. S. Weymouth, A.D. 
1723,* aged 47. This tablet is erected near Selkirk's lookout, 
by Commodore Powell and the officers of H. M. S. Topaze, 
A.D. 1868. 

I visited Robinson Crusoe Bay in a small 
row-boat, and with some difficulty landed 
through the surf near the cave, which I found 
dry and inhabitable. It is located in a beauti- 
ful nook sheltered by high mountains from all 
the severe storms that sweep over the island, 
which are not many ; for it lies near the limits 
of the trade-wind regions, being in latitude 

* Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, in the "Century Magazine" for 
July, 1 899, shows that the tablet is in error as to the year of Sel- 
kirk's death, It should be 1721. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 127 

35^° S. The island is about fourteen miles in 
length, east and west, and eight miles in width; 
its height is over three thousand feet. Its dis- 
tance from Chile, to which country it belongs, 
is about three hundred and forty miles. 

Juan Fernandez was once a convict station. 
A number of caves in which the prisoners were 
kept, damp, unwholesome dens, are no longer 
in use, and no more prisoners are sent to the 
island. 

The pleasantest day I spent on the island, 
if not the pleasantest on my whole voyage, 
was when the children of the little community, 
one and all, Avent out with me to gather wild 
fruits for the voyage. We found quinces, 
peaches, and figs, and they gathered a basketful 
of each. It takes very little to please children. 
These little ones asked me the names of all 
manner of things on the island. We came to a 
wild fig-tree loaded with fruit, of which I gave 
them the English name. " Figgies, figgies ! " 
they cried, while they picked till their baskets 
were full. But when I told them that the cabra 
they pointed out was onl}^ a goat, they screamed 
with laughter, and rolled on the grass in wild 
delight to think that a man had come to their 
island who would call a cabra a goat. 

The greatest drawback I saw in the island 



128 Around the World 

was the want of a school, though the people 
were by no means clownish or ignorant. 

On the morning of May 5, 1896, I sailed from 
Juan Fernandez, having feasted on many 
things, but on nothing sweeter than the advent- 
ure itself of a visit to the home and to the very 
cave of Robinson Crusoe. From the island the 
Spray bore away to the north, passing the island 
of St. Felix before she gained the trade-winds, 
which seemed slow in reaching their limits. 

If the trades were tardy, however, when they 
did come they came with a bang, and made up 
for lost time ; and the Spray, under reefs, some- 
times one, sometimes two, flew before a gale 
for a great many days, heading now toward the 
Marquesas, which she made on the forty-third 
day out, and still kept on sailing. My time 
was all taken up those days — not by standing at 
the helm ; no man, I think, could stand or sit 
and steer a vessel round the world : I did better 
than that; for I read my books, mended my 
clothes, or cooked my meals and ate them in 
peace. I had already found that it was not 
good to be alone, and so I made companionship 
with what there was around me, sometimes 
with the universe and sometimes with my 
books, which were always my friends, let fail 
ail else. 



in the Sloop ''Spray*' 129 

I sailed with a free wind day after day, 
marking the position of my ship on the chart 
with considerable precision ; but this was done 
by intuition, I think, more than by slavish cal- 
culations. For one whole month my vessel 
held her course true ; I had not, the while, so 
much as a light in the binnacle. The South- 
ern Cross I saw every night abeam. The sun 
every morning came up astern ; every evening 
it went down ahead. I wished for no other 
compass to guide me, for these were true. If 
I doubted my reckoning after a long time at 
sea, I verified it by reading the clock aloft made 
by the Great Architect, and it was right. 

The changes in wind and waves were in- 
teresting here in the trade-winds. I observed 
that about every seven days the wind fresh- 
ened and drew several points farther than 
usual from the direction of the pole ; that is, it 
went round from east-southeast to south-south- 
east, while at the same time a heavy swell rolled 
up from the southwest. All this indicated that 
gales were going on in the anti-trades. The 
wind then hauled day after day as it moder- 
ated, till it stood again at the normal point, 
east-southeast. This ^*s more or less the con- 
stant state of the winter trades in latitude 
12° S., where for weeks I sailed exactly west 



130 Aroicnd the World 

or nearly so. From Juan Fernandez to the 
Marquesas Islands I experienced six changes 
of these great palpitations of sea-winds and of 
the sea itself, the effect of far-off gales. 

To cross the Pacific Ocean, brings one for 
many days close to nature, and one realizes the 
vastness of the sea. On the forty-third day 
from land, — a long time to be at sea alone, — 
the sky being beautifully clear and the moon 
being ''in distance" with the sun, I threw up 
my sextant for sights. I found from the result 
of three observations, after long wrestling with 
lunar tables, that her longitude by observation 
agreed within five miles of that by dead-reck- 
oning. 

This was remarkable ; both, however, might 
be in error, but somehow I felt confident that 
both were nearly true, and that in a few hours 
more I should see land ; and so it happened, for 
then I made the island of Nukahiva, the south- 
ernmost of the Marquesas group, clear and 
lofty. The verified longitude when abreast was 
somewhere between the two reckonings; this 
was extraordinary. All navigators will tell you 
that from one day to another a ship may lose 
or gain more than five miles in her sailing- 
account, and again, with observations of the 
moon, even expert navigators are considered as 



in the Sloop '' Spray '^ 131 

doing clever work when they average within 
eight miles of the truth. 

A rotator log always towed astern, but so 
much has to be allowed for currents and for 
drift, which the log never shows, that it is only 
an approximation, after all, to be corrected by 
one's own judgment from data of a thousand 
voyages ; and even then the master of the ship, 
if he is wise, cries out for the lead and the 
lookout. 



132 Around the World 



CHAPTER XII 

Seventy-two days without a port — Whales and birds — A peep into 
the Spray'' s galley — Flying-fish for breakfast — A welcome at 
Apia — A visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson. 

First among the incidents of the voyage from 
Juan Fernandez to Samoa was a narrow escape 
from collision with a great whale that was 
absent-mindedly ploughing the ocean at night 
while I was below. The noise from his startled 
snort and the commotion he made in the sea, 
as he turned to clear m}^ vessel, brought me on 
deck in time to catch a wetting from the water 
he threw up with his flukes. The monster was 
frightened. He headed quickly for the east ; 
I kept on going west. Soon another whale 
passed, evidently a companion, following in its 
wake. I saw no more whales on this part of 
the voyage. 

Hungry sharks came about the vessel often 
when she neared islands or coral reefs, and 
birds were always about; occasionally one 
poised on the mast to look the Spray over, 
wondering, perhaps, at her odd wings, for she 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 133 

still wore her Fuego mainsail. I saw not even 
one ship in the many days crossing the Pacific, 
and of course there was not a soul to whom I 
could speak. 

Taking things by and large, as sailors say, 
I got on fairly well in the matter of provisions 
even on the long voyage across the Pacific. I 
had always some small stores to help the fare 
of luxuries ; what I lacked of fresh meat was 
made up in fresh fish, at least while in the trade- 
winds, where flying-fish crossing on the wing at 
night would hit the sails and fall on deck, some- 
times two or three of them, sometimes a dozen. 
Every morning except when the moon was 
large I got a bountiful supply by merely pick- 
ing them up from the lee scuppers. All canned 
meats went begging. 

On the 1 6th of July, after considerable care 
and some skill and hard work, the Spray cast 
anchor at Apia, in the kingdom of Samoa, about 
noon. My vessel being moored, I spread an 
awning, and instead of going at once on shore 
I sat under it till late in the evening, listening 
with delight to the musical voices of the Samoan 
men and women. 

A canoe coming down the harbor, with three 
young women in it, rested its paddles abreast 
the sloop. One of the fair crew, hailing with 



134 Around the World 

the naive salutation, " Talofa lee " (" Love to 
you, chief"), asked : 

'' Schoon come Melike?" ("This schooner 
came from Melike ? " 

" Love to you," I answered, and said, " Yes." 

" You man come 'lone ? " 

Again I answered, " Yes." 

" I don't believe that. You had other mans, 
and you eat 'em." 

At this sally the others laughed. " What for 
you come long way?" they asked. 

" To hear you ladies sing," I replied. 

" Oh, talofa lee ! " they all cried, and sang on. 
Their voices filled the air with music that rolled 
across to the grove of tall palms on the other 
side of the harbor and back. Soon after this 
six young men came down in the United States 
consul-general's boat, singing in parts and beat- 
ing time with their oars. In my interview with 
them I came off better than with the damsels 
in the canoe. They bore an invitation from 
General Churchill for me to come and dine at 
the consulate. Next morning, bright and early, 
Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson came to the Spray 
and invited me to Vailima, the Stevenson home. 
I of course accepted these invitations with a 
thrill of delight. 

Mrs. Stevenson gave me a great directory of 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 135 

the Indian Ocean, and four volumes of sailing 
directories of the Mediterranean which her 
husband had owned. It was not without a feel- 
ing of reverential awe that I received the books 
so nearly direct from the hand of Tusitala,* 
*' who sleeps in the forest." Aolele,t the Spray 
will cherish your gift. 

It was the fashion of the native visitors to the 
Spray to come over the bows, where they could 
reach the head-gear and climb aboard with ease, 
and on going ashore to jump off the stern and 
swim away ; nothing could have been more de- 
lightfully simple. The modest natives wore 
lava-lava bathing-dresses, a native cloth from 
the bark of the mulberry-tree, and they did no 
harm to the Spray. In summer-land Samoa their 
coming and going was a merry every-day scene. 

It was not uncommon at Apia to see a young 
woman swimming alongside a small canoe with 
a passenger for the Spray. My own canoe, a 
small dugout, one day when it had rolled over 
with me, was seized by a party of fair bathers, 
and almost before I could get my breath was 
towed around and around the Spray, while I sat 
in the bottom of it, wondering what they would 
do next. 

* The Teller of Tales, a name given to Stevenson by the 
Samoans, who loved him dearly. 

+ The Samoan name given to Mrs. Stevenson. 



136 Around the World 



CHAPTER XIII 

Good-by to friends at Vailima — The yachts of Sydney — A duck- 
ing on the Spray — Commodore Foy presents the sloop with 
a new suit of sails — On to Melbourne — A shark that proved 
to be valuable — A change of course. 

Of the landmarks in the pleasant town of 
Apia, my memory rests first on the little school 
just back of the London Missionary Society's 
coffee-house and reading-rooms, where Mrs. 
Bell, a widow, taught English to about a hun- 
dred native children, boys and girls. Brighter 
children you will not find anywhere. 

**Now, children," said Mrs. Bell, when I 
called one day, "- let us show the captain that 
we know something about the Cape Horn he 
passed in the Spray,'' at which a lad of nine or 
ten years stepped nimbly forward and read 
Basil Hall's fine description of the great cape, 
and read it well. He afterward copied the 
essay for me in a clear hand. My visit was pro- 
longed at Samoa, for I was in need of rest from 
solitude and here among agreeable people the 
change was complete. But August 20, 1896, I 
said '' Tofah ! " good-by to m}^ good friends of 
Samoa, and all wishing the Spray a good voy- 



in the Sloop ^^ Spray ^^ 137 

age she stood out of the harbor and continued 
on her course. A sense of loneliness seized 
me as the islands faded astern. 

In my course for Australia I sailed north of 
the Horn Islands, also north of the Fiji Islands 
instead of south, as I had intended, and coasted 
down the west side of the archipelago. I came 
first within sight of the Island of Vauna Levu 
which is situated on the i8oth meridian and 
right there a point of special interest was made 
in the voyage, namely the changing of the date. 

A ship sailing west gains time, four seconds 
for every mile, four minutes for every degree, 
and one hour for every fifteen degrees, and so 
on. The Spray had sailed westward, thus gain- 
ing time until, for example, August 24, time 
on ship, when the true time was within one sec- 
ond of August 25. 

Clearly my ship had to gain only one more 
minute of time to make the date August 25, 
and this by sailing on was exactly what the 
Spray did. She was now at the meridian of 
180. Still sailing on she crossed this meridian, 
where all dates change, and was at once in East 
Longitude and I could write instantly August 
26. 

It was like sailing into "" day-after-to-morrow," 
was it not ? 



138 Around the World 

Sailing in the opposite direction a ship will 
shorten her day by the same rule and crossing 
the meridian of 180 where the day begins, she 
will meet that same day as it rolls around to its 
western limits. 

Thus you see that while the day is going 
westward around the world taking its depart- 
ure from 180°, the ship just sails across that 
meridian in the opposite direction, perhaps in 
the night, and meets the first peep of it in the 
morning on the other side. The people in the 
ship then write that day for the second time in 
the logbook. 

Once 1 had two birth-days in one 3^ear. It 
happened in this way : m}' ship was in East 
Longitude 179° February 20th, which was my 
birth-day. Sailing east she was across the 
meridian 180° and in West Longitude on the 
following day, or what was apparently so but 
was in reality the same old February 20, and 
so I had to celebrate all over again. My 
ship sailing east in that case had run into 
** yesterda3^" From the Fiji Islands I sailed 
direct for New South Wales, passing south of 
New Caledonia, and arrived at Newcastle after 
a stormy passage of forty-two days. 

One particularly severe gale encountered 
near New Caledonia foundered the American 



in the Sloop '' Sprvy'' 139 

clipper-ship Patrician farther south. Again, 
nearer the coast of Australia, when, however, I 
was not aware that the gale was extraordinary, 
a French mail-steamer from New Caledonia for 
Sydney, blown considerably out of her course, 
on her arrival reported it an awful storm, and 
to inquiring friends said: ** Oh, my! we don't 
know what has become of the little sloop Spray, 
We saw her in the thick of the storm." The 
Spray was all right, lying to like a duck. She 
was under a goose's wing mainsail, and had had 
a dry deck while the passengers on the steamer, 
I heard later, were up to their knees in water 
in the saloon. In this gale I made the land 
about Seal Rocks, where the steamship Gather- 
ton, with many lives, was lost a short time be- 
fore. I was many hours off the rocks, beating 
back and forth, but weathered them at last. 

I arrived at Newcastle in the teeth of a gale 
of wind. It was a stormy season. Great cour- 
tesies were extended to the Spray at Newcastle. 
All government dues were remitted, and after 
I had rested a few days a port pilot with a tug 
carried her to sea again, and she made along 
the coast toward the harbor of Sydney, where 
she arrived on the following day, October 10, 
1896. 

Summer was approachinc^^ and the harbor ol 



140 Around the World 

Sydney was blooming with yachts. Some of 
them came down to the weather-beaten Spray 
and sailed round her at Shelcote, where she 
took a berth for a few days. At Sydney I was 
at once among friends. I had made voyages 
to this port in a larger ship. The Spray re- 
mained at the various watering-places in the 
great port for several weeks, and was visited 
by many agreeable people, frequentl}^ by offi- 
cers of H. M. S. Orlando and their friends. 
Captain, now Admiral Fisher, the commander, 
with a party of young ladies from the city and 
gentlemen belonging to his ship, came one day 
to pay me a visit in the midst of a deluge of 
rain. I never saw it rain harder even in Aus- 
tralia. But they were out for fun, and rain 
could not dampen their feelings, however hard 
it poured. But, as iil-luck would have it, a 
young gentleman of another party on board, in 
the full uniform of a very great yacht club, 
with brass buttons enough to sink him, step- 
ping quickly to get out of the wet, tumbled, 
head and heels, into a barrel of water I had 
been coopering, and being a short man, was 
soon out of sight, and nearly drowned before 
he was rescued. This was the nearest to a cas- 
ualty on the Spray in her whole course. At 
Sydney the Spray changed her ill-fitting and 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 141 

patched sails for a new suit, the handsome 
present of Commodore Foy. 

Time flew fast those days in Australia, and it 
was December 6, 1896, when the Spray sailed 
from Sydney. My intention was now to sail 
around Cape Leeuwin direct for Mauritius on 
my way home, and so I coasted along toward 
Bass Strait in that direction. 

There was little to report on this part of the 
voyage, except changeable winds, and rough 
seas. The 12th of December, however, was an 
exceptional day, with a fine coast wind, north- 
east. The Spray, early in the morning, passed 
Twofold Bay and later Cape Bundooro in a 
smooth sea with land close aboard. The light- 
house on the cape dipped a flag to the Spray s 
flag, and children on the balconies of a cottage 
near the shore waved handkerchiefs as she 
passed by. There were only a few people all 
told on the shore, but the scene was a happ}^ 
one. I saw festoons of evergreen and summer 
flowers in token of Christmas, near at hand. 
Australia is sometimes called the Land of 
Roses, and Christmas being midsummer there, 
all was abloom. I saluted the merrymakers, 
wishing them a " Merry Christmas," and could 
hear them say, " I wish you the same." 

From Cape Bundooro I passed by Cliff Island 



142 Aroicnd the World 

in Bass Strait, and exchanged signals with the 
light-keepers while the Spray worked up under 
the island. The wind howled that day while 
the sea broke over their rocky home. 

A few days later, December 17, the Spray 
came in close under Wilson's Promontory, 
again seeking shelter. The keeper of the light 
at that station came on board and gave me 
directions for Waterloo Bay, about three miles 
to leeward, for which I bore up at once, finding 
good anchorage there in a sandy cove protected 
from all westerly and northerly winds. 

Anchored here was the ketch Secret, a fisher- 
man, and the Mary of Sydney, a steam ferry- 
boat fitted for whaling. 

We spent three days in the quiet cove, listen- 
ing to the wind outside. Meanwhile the captain 
of the Mary and I explored the shores, visited 
abandoned miners' pits, and prospected for gold 
ourselves. 

Then we sailed and our vessels, parting 
company, stood away each on its own course. 
The wind for a few days was moderate, and, 
with unusual luck of fine weather, the Spray 
made Melbourne Heads on the 22d of Decem- 
ber, and, taken in tow by the steam-tug Racer, 
was brought into port. 

Christmas-day was spent at a berth in the 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 143 

river Yarrow, but I lost little time in shifting 
to St. Kilda, where I spent nearly a month. 

The Spray paid no port charges in Australia 
or anywhere else on the voyage, except at Per- 
nambuco, till she poked her nose into the cus- 
tom-house at Melbourne, where she was charged 
tonnage dues, sixpence a ton on the gross. The 
collector exacted six shillings and sixpence, her 
exact gross being 12.70 tons. I squared the 
matter by charging people sixpence each for 
coming on board, and when this business got 
dull I caught a shark and charged them six- 
pence each to look at that. The shark was 
twelve feet six inches in length, and carried a 
progeny of twenty -six, not one of them less than 
two feet in length. A slit of a knife let them 
out in a canoe full of water, which, changed 
constantly, kept them alive one whole day. In 
less than an hour from the time I heard of the 
ugly brute it was on deck and on exhibition, 
with rather more than the amount of the 
Spray s tonnage dues already collected. 

The income from the show and the proceeds 
of the tallow I had gathered in the Strait of 
Magellan, the last of which I had disposed of 
to a German soap-boiler at Samoa, put me in 
ample funds. 

January 24, 1897^ found the Spray again in 



144 Around the World 

tow of the tug Racer, leaving Hobson's Bay 
after a pleasant time in Melbourne and St. 
Kilda, which had been protracted by a succes- 
sion of southwest winds that seemed never- 
ending. 

In the summer months, that is, December, 
January, February, and sometimes March, east 
winds are prevalent through Bass Strait and 
round Cape Leeuwin ; but owing to a vast 
amount of ice drifting up from the Antarctic 
this was all changed and emphasized with much 
bad weather, so much so that I did not consider 
it best to pursue the course farther. Instead, 
therefore, of thrashing round cold and stormy 
Cape Leeuwin, I decided to spend a pleasanter 
and more profitable time in Tasmania, waiting 
for the season for favorable winds through 
Torres Strait, by way of the Great Barrier 
Reef, the route I finally decided on. To sail 
this course would be taking advantage of anti- 
cyclones, which never fail, and besides it would 
give me the chance to put foot on the shores 
of Tasmania, round which I had sailed years 
before. 

I should mention that while I was at Mel- 
bourne there occurred one of those extraordi- 
nary storms sometimes called *' rain of blood," 
the first of the kind in many years about 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 145 

Australia. The ''blood** came from a fine 
brick-dust matter afloat in the air from the 
deserts. A rain-storm setting in brought down 
this dust simply as mud ; it fell in such quan- 
tities that a bucketful was collected from the 
sloop's awnings, which were spread at the time. 
When the wind blew hard and I was obliged to 
furl awnings, her sails, unprotected on the 
booms, got mud-vStained from end to end. 

The phenomena of dust-storms, well under- 
stood by scientists, are not uncommon on the 
coast of Africa. Reaching some distance out 
over the sea, they frequently cover the track of 
ships, as in the case of the one through which 
the Spray passed in the earlier part of her 
voyage. Sailors no longer regard them with 
superstitious fear, but our credulous brothers 
on the land it seems cry out " Rain of blood ! " 
at the first splash of the awful mud. 

It was only a few hours' sail to Tasmania 
across the strait, the wind being fair and blow- 
ing hard. 

The Spray was berthed on the beach at a 
small jetty at Launceston while the tide, driven 
in by the gale that brought her up the river, 
was unusually high ; and she lay there hard and 
fast, with not enough water around her at any 
time after to wet one's feet till she was ready to 



146 Around the World 

sail ; then, to float her, the ground was dug 
from under her keel. 

In this snug place I left her in charge of three 
children, while I made journeys among the 
hills and rested my bones for the coming voy- 
age, on the moss-covered rocks at the gorge 
hard by and among the ferns I found wherever 
I went. My vessel was well taken care of. I 
never returned without finding that the decks 
had been washed and that one of the children, 
my nearest neighbor's little girl from across 
the road, was at the gangway attending to visi- 
tors, while the others, a brother and sister, sold 
marine curios, such as coral and sea-shells, in 
the cargo, for the benefit of the Spray, They 
were a bright, cheerful crew, and people came 
a long way to hear them tell the story of the 
voyage, and of the monsters of the deep " the 
captain had slain." I had only to keep myself 
away to be a hero of the first water; and it 
suited me very well to do so and to rest in the 
forests and among the streams. 



in the Sloop '' Spray^' 147 



CHAPTER XIV 

Cruising round Tasmania — An inspection of the Spray for safety 
at Devonport — Again at Sydney — Northward bound for 
Torres Strait — An amateur shipwreck — Friends on the Aus- 
tralian coast — Perils of a coral sea. 

The season of fair weather around the north 
of Australia being yet a long- way off, I sailed 
to other ports in Tasmania, where it is fine the 
year round, the first of these being Beauty 
Point. Near this are Beaconsfield and the 
great Tasmania gold-mine, which I visited in 
turn. I saw much gray, uninteresting rock 
being hoisted out of the mine there, and hun- 
dreds of stamps crushing it into powder. People 
told me there was gold in it, and I believed 
what they said. 

From Beauty Point the Spray visited George- 
town, near the mouth of the river Tamar. This 
little settlement, I believe, marks the place 
where the first footprints were made by whites 
in Tasmania, though it never grew to be more 
than a hamlet. 

From Georgetown the Spray sailed to Dev- 
onport, a thriving place on the river Mersey, a 
few miles westward along the coast. Large 



148 Arou7id the World 

steamers enter there and carry away car- 
goes of farm produce, but the Spray was the 
first vessel to bring the Stars and Stripes to the 
port, so the harbor-master told me and so it is 
written in the port records. 

The Spray was hauled out on the marine rail- 
way at Devonport and examined carefully top 
and bottom, but was found absolutely free 
from the destructive teredo, and sound in all 
respects. The teredo is a small worm in the 
sea which ravages nearly all kinds of unpro- 
tected timber. It will destroy ships when they 
are not protected by some covering. For that 
reason copper sheathing and various other 
metals are used to cover ships' bottoms. Some- 
times metal paints are used instead of the metal 
itself. To protect her further against the rav- 
ages of these insects, the bottom was coated 
once more with copper paint, for she would 
have to sail through the Coral and Arafura 
seas before refitting again. 

The season of summer was now over ; winter 
was rolling up from the south, with fair winds 
for the north. A foretaste of winter wind sent 
the Spray fl3ang round Cape Howe and as far 
as Cape Bundooro, which she passed on the 
following day, retracing her course north- 
ward. This was a fine run, and boded good 



in the Sloop "'Spray'" 149 

for the long voyage home from the antipodes. 
My old Christmas friends on Bundooro seemed 
to be up and moving when I came the second 
time by their cape, and we exchanged signals 
again, while the sloop sailed along as before 
in a smooth sea and close to the shore. 

The weather was fine, with clear sky the rest 
of the passage to Port Jackson (Sydney), where 
the Spray arrived April 22, 1897, and anchored 
in Watson's Bay, near the heads, in eight fath- 
oms of water. 

I sailed again. May 9, before a strong south- 
west wind, which sent the Spray gallantly on 
as far as Port Stevens, where it fell calm and 
then came up ahead ; but the weather was fine, 
and so remained for many days, which was a 
great change from the weather experienced 
here some months before. 

Having a full set of admiralty sheet-charts of 
the coast and Barrier Reef, I felt easy in mind. 
Captain Fisher, R. N., who had steamed through 
the Barrier passages in H. M. S. Orlando, ad- 
vised me from the first to take this route, and 
I did not regret coming back to it now. 

The wind, for a few days after passing Port 
Stevens, Seal Rocks, and Cape Hawk, was light 
and dead ahead ; but these points are photo- 
graphed on my memory from the trial of beat- 



150 Aroiind the World 

ing round them some months before when 
bound the other way. But now, with a good 
stock of books on board, I fell to reading day 
and night, leaving this pleasant occupation 
merely to trim sails or tack, or to lie down and 
rest, while the Spray nibbled at the miles. 

I had just finished reading some of the most 
interesting of the old voyages in woe-begone 
ships, in " Philips' Voyages," and was already 
near Port Macquarie, on my own cruise, when 
I made out. May 13, a modern dandy craft in 
distress, anchored on the coast. Standing in 
for her, I found that she was a cutter-yacht 
which had sailed from Watson's Bay about 
three days ahead of the Spray, and that she had 
run at once into trouble. No wonder she did 
so. It was a case of butterflies at sea. Her 
owner, on his maiden voyage, was all duck 
trousers ; the captain, distinguished for the 
enormous yachtsman's cap he wore, was a Mur- 
rumbidgee* whaler before he took command of 
the yacht ; and the navigating officer, poor fel- 
low, was almost as deaf as a post, and nearly as 
stiff and immovable as a post in the ground. 
These three jolly tars comprised the crew. 

* The Murrumbidgee is a small river winding among the moun- 
tains of Australia, and would be the last place in which to look for 
a whale. 




The Spray. 

From a photograph taken in Australian waters. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 151 

None of them knew more about the sea or 
about a vessel than a newly born babe knows 
about another world. They were bound for 
New Guinea, so they said ; perhaps it was as 
well that they never reached that destination. 

The owner, whom I had met before he sailed, 
wanted to race the poor old Spray to Thurs- 
day Island en route. I declined the challenge, 
naturally, on the ground of the unfairness of 
three young yachtsmen in a clipper against an 
old sailor all alone in a craft of coarse build ; 
besides that, I would not on any account race 
in the Coral Sea. 

'' Spray ahoy ! " they all hailed now. ** What's 
the weather goin* t* be ? Is it a-goin* to blow ? 
And don't you think we'd better go back t' 
r-r-refit ? " 

I thought, " If ever you get back, don't refit," 
but I said : " Give me the end of a rope, and 
ril tow you into yon port farther along ; and 
on your lives," I urged, " do not go back round 
Cape Hawk, for it's winter to the south of it." 

They purposed making for Newcastle under 
jury-sails ; for their mainsail had been blown 
to ribbons, even the jigger had been blown 
away, and her rigging flew at loose ends. The 
yacht, in a word, was a wreck. 

" Up with your anchor," I shouted ; ** up 



152 Around the World 

with your anchor, and let me tow you into Port 
Macquarie, twelve miles north of this." 

" No," cried the owner ; '* we'll go back to 
Newcastle. We missed Newcastle on the way 
coming ; we didn't see the light, and it was not 
thick, either." This he shouted very loud, 
ostensibly for my hearing, but closer even than 
necessary, I thought, to the ear of the navi- 
gating officer. Again I tried to persuade them 
to be towed into the port of refuge so near at 
hand. It would have cost them only the trouble 
of weighing their anchor and passing me a 
rope ; of this I assured them, but they declined 
even this, in want of judgment. 

" What is your depth of water?" I asked. 

'' Don't know ; we lost our lead. All the 
chain is out. We sounded with the anchor." 

" Send your boat over, and I'll give you a 
lead." 

" We've lost our boat, too," they cried. 

** God is good, else you would have lost 
yourselves," and " Farewell " was all I could 
say. 

The trifling service proffered by the Spray 
would have saved their vessel. 

'' Report us," they cried, as I stood on — "re- 
port us with sails blown away, and that we 
don't care a dash and are not afraid." 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 153 

" Then there is no hope for you," and again 
"Farewell." 

I promised I would report them, and did so 
at the first opportunity, and out of humane 
reasons I do so again. 

It was about eighteen days before I heard of 
the yacht again, which was on the 31st of May, 
when I reached Cooktown, on the Endeavor 
River, where I found this news : 

May 31, the yacht , from Sydney for New Guinea, 

three hands on board, lost at Crescent head; the crew 
saved. 

So it took them several days to lose the craft, 
after all. 

After speaking the distressed yacht, the voy- 
age for many days was uneventful save in the 
pleasant incident on May 16 of a chat by signal 
with the people on South Solitary Island, a 
dreary stone heap in the ocean just off the coast 
of New South Wales, in S. latitude 30° 12', E. 
longitude 153° 2%', to be exact. 

" What vessel is that ? " they asked, as the 
sloop came abreast of their island. For answer 
I tried them with the Stars and Stripes at the 
peak. Down came their signals at once, and 
up went the British ensign instead, which they 
dipped heartily. I understood from this that 



154 Around the World 

they made out my vessel and knew all about 
her, for they asked no more questions. They 
didn't even ask if the '* voyage would pay," but 
they threw out this friendly message, ** Wishing 
you a pleasant voyage," which at that very 
moment I was having. 

May 19 the Spray, passing the Tweed River, 
was signalled from Danger Point, where those 
on shore seemed most anxious about the state 
of my health, for they asked if *' all hands" 
were well, to which I could say, '' Yes." 

On the following day the Spray rounded 
Great Sandy Cape and picked up the trade- 
winds, that followed her for many thousands of 
miles, never ceasing to blow from a gale to a 
moderate or mild summer breeze, except at 
rare intervals. 

From the pitch of the cape was a noble light 
seen twenty-seven miles ; passing from this to 
Lady Elliott Light, which stands on an island 
as a sentinel at the gateway of the Barrier 
Reef, the Spray was at once in the fairway 
leading north. Poets have sung of beacon- 
light and of pharos, but did ever poet behold a 
great light flash up before his path on a dark 
night in the midst of a coral sea? If so, he 
knew the meaning of his song. 

The Spray had sailed for hours in suspense, 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 155 

evidently stemming a current. Almost mad 
with doubt, I grasped the helm to throw her 
head off shore, when blazing out of the sea was 
the light ahead. '' Excalibur !" I cried, and re- 
joiced, and sailed on. The Spray was now in a 
protected sea and smooth water, the first she 
had dipped her keel into since leaving Gibral- 
tar, and a change it was from the heaving of 
the misnamed '' Pacific " Ocean. 

On the 24th of May, the sloop, having made 
one hundred and ten miles a day from Danger 
Point, now entered Whitsunday Pass, and that 
night sailed through among the islands. When 
the sun rose next morning I looked back and 
regretted having gone by while it was dark, 
for the scenerv far astern was varied and 
charming. 



156 Around the World 



CHAPTER XV 

Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland — A happy escape from a 
coral reef — An American pearl-fisherman — Jubilee at Thurs- 
day Island — Sailing in the Arafura Sea — Specimen pages from 
the Spray^s Log — Across the Indian Ocean — Christmas 
Island, 

On the morning of the 26th Gloucester Isl- 
and was close aboard, and the Spray anchored 
in the evening at Port Denison, where rests, on 
a hill, the sweet little town of Bowen, the future 
watering-place and health-resort of Queensland. 
The country all about here had a healthful ap- 
pearance. 

From Port Denison the sloop ran before the 
constant trade-wind, and made no stop at all, 
night or day, till she reached Cooktown, on the 
Endeavor River, where she arrived Monday, 
May 31, 1897, before a furious blast of wind en- 
countered that day fifty miles down the coast. 
On this parallel of latitude is the high ridge and 
backbone of the trade-winds, which about Cook- 
town amount often to a hard gale. 

"The Spray came flying into port like a bird,'* 
said the longshore daily papers of Cooktown. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 157 

Tacking inside of all the craft in port, I 
moored at sunset nearly abreast the Captain 
Cook monument, and next morning went ashore 
to feast my eyes on the very stones the great 
navigator had seen. 

The Spray sailed from Cooktown on June 6, 
1897, heading away for the north as before. 

Arrived at a very inviting anchorage about 
sundown, the 7th, I came to, for the night, 
abreast the Claremont light-ship. This was the 
only time throughout the passage of the Bar- 
rier Reef Channel that the Spray anchored, ex- 
cept at Port Denison and at Endeavor River. 
On the very night following this, however (the 
8th), I regretted keenly, for an instant, that I 
had not anchored before it was too late, as I 
might have done easily under the lee of a coral 
reef. It happened in this way. The Spray had 
just passed M Reef* light-ship, and had left the 
light dipping astern, when, going at full speed, 
with sheets off, she hit the M Reef itself on the 
north end, where I expected to see a beacon. 

She swung off quickly on her heel, however, 
and with one more bound on a swell cut across 
the shoal point so quickl}^ that I hardly knew 
how it was done. The beacon wasn't there; at 
least, I didn't see it. I hadn't time to look for 

* Reefs in the Great Barrier are named for letters in the alphabet. 



158 Arotmd the World 

it after she struck, and certainly it didn't much 
matter then whether 1 saw it or not. 

But this gave her a fine departure, and from 
M Reef I steered outside of the adjacent 
islands to be on the safe side. Skipping along 
now, the Spray passed Home Island, off the 
pitch of the cape, soon after midnight, and 
squared away on a westerly course. A short 
time later she fell in with a steamer bound 
south, groping her way in the dark and making 
the night dismal with her own black smoke. 

A great number of fisher-birds were about 
this day, which was one of the pleasantest of 
days. June 9, 1897, the Spray ^ dancing over the 
waves, entered Albany Pass as the sun drew 
low over the hills of Australia. 

At 7.30 P.M. the Spray, now through the pass, 
came to anchor in a cove in the mainland, near 
a pearl-fisherman, called the Tarawa, which 
was at anchor, her captain from the deck of his 
vessel directing me to a berth. This done, he 
at once came on board to clasp hands. The 
Tarazva was a Californian, and Captain Jones, 
her master, was an American. 

On the following morning Captain Jones 
brought on board two pairs of exquisite pearl 
shells, the most perfect ones I ever saw. 

After a pleasant chat and good-by to the 
people of the Tarazva, I again weighed anchor 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 159 

and stood across for Thursday Island, now in 
plain view, mid-channel in Torres Strait, where 
I arrived shortly after noon. Here the Spray 
remained until June 24, being the only Amer- 
ican representative in port. The 22d was the 
Queen's diamond jubilee. The two days over 
were for rest and recuperation. 

I spent pleasant days about the island. 

On June 24 the Spray, well fitted in every 
way, sailed for the long voyage ahead, down 
the Indian Ocean. Mr. Douglas, the Resident 
Magistrate, gave her a Union Jack as she was 
leaving. The Spray had now passed nearly all 
the dangers of the Coral Sea and Torres Strait, 
which, indeed, were not a few ; and all ahead 
from this point was plain sailing and a straight 
course. The trade-wind was still blowing fresh, 
and could be safely counted on now down to 
the coast of Madagascar, if not beyond that, for 
it was still early in the season. 

I had no wish to arrive off the Cape of Good 
Hope before midsummer, and it was now early 
winter. I had been off that cape once in July, 
which was, of course, midwinter there. The 
stout ship I then commanded encountered only 
fierce hurricanes, and she bore them ill. I 
wished for no winter gales now. It was not 
that I feared them more, being in the Spray in- 
stead of a large ship, but that I preferred fine 



i6o Around the World 

weather in any case. And so with time cinough 
before me to admit of a run ashore on the isl- 
ands en route, I shaped the course first for 
Keeling Cocos, atoll islands, distant twenty- 
seven hundred miles, taking my departure from 
Booby Island, which the sloop passed early in 
the day. 

I made no call at the little island, but stand- 
ing close in, exchanged signals with the keeper 
of the light. Sailing on, the sloop was at once 
in the Arafura Sea, where for days she sailed in 
water milky white and green and purple, ac- 
cording to the color of the ground over which 
she sailed. It was my good fortune to enter 
the sea on the last quarter of the moon, the ad- 
vantage being that in the dark nights I wit- 
nessed the phosphorescent light effect at night 
in its greatest splendor. The sea was full of 
luminous organic matter and, where the sloop 
disturbed it, seemed all ablaze, so that by its 
light I could see the smallest articles on deck, 
and her wake was a path of fire. 

On the 25th of June the sloop was already 
clear of all the shoals and dangers, and was 
sailing on a smooth sea as steadily as before, 
but with speed somewhat slackened. I got out 
the flying-jib made at Juan Fernandez, and set 
it as a spinnaker from a stout bamboo that Mrs. 



in the Sloop ^^ Spray''' i6i 

Stevenson gave me at Samoa. The spinnaker 
pulled stoutly and the bamboo holding its own, 
the Spray mended her pace. 

Several pigeons flying across to-day from 
Australia toward the islands bent their course 
over the Spray. Smaller birds were seen flying 
in the opposite direction. In the part of the 
Arafura Sea to which I first came, where it was 
shallow, sea-snakes writhed about on the sur- 
face and tumbled over and over in the waves. 
As the sloop sailed farther on, where the sea 
became deep, they disappeared. In the ocean, 
where the water is blue, not one was seen. 

In the days of serene weather there was not 
much to do but to read and take rest on the 
Spray, to make up for the rough time off Cape 
Horn, which was not yet forgotten, and to fore- 
stall the Cape of Good Hope by a store of ease. 
My sea journal was now much the same from 
day to day — something like this of June 26 and 
27, for example : 

June 26, in the morning, it is a bit squally ; later in the 
day blowing a steady breeze. 

On the log at noon is 130 miles 

Subtract correction for slip 10 

120 
Add for current 10 

130 

Latitude, by observation at noon, 10° 23' S, 
Longitude as per mark on the chart. (E. longitude 137** 20',) 



1 62 Around the World 

There wasn't much brain-work in that log, 
I'm sure. June 27 makes a better showing, 
when all is told : 

First of all, to-day, was a flying-fish on deck ; fried it in 
butter. 

133 miles on the log. 

For slip, off, and for current, on, as per guess, about equal 
— let it go at that. 

Latitude, by observation at noon, 10° 25' S.; E. longitude, 
135° 35'. 

For several days now the Spray sailed ex- 
actly west on the parallel of 10° 25' S. If she 
deviated at all from that, through the day or 
night, — and this may have happened, — she was 
back, strangely enough, at noon, at the same 
latitude. 

On the 2d of July the great island of Timor 
was in view away to the northward. On the 
following day I saw Dana Island, not far off, 
and a breeze came up from the land at night, 
fragrant of the spices of the coast. 

On the nth, with all sail set and with the 
spinnaker still abroad, Christmas Island, about 
noon, came into view one point on the star- 
board bow. Before night it was abeam and 
distant two and a half miles. The surface of 
the island appeared evenly rounded from the 



in the Sloop ''^ Spray ^^ 163 

sea to a considerable height in the centre. In 
outline it was as smooth as a fish, and a long 
ocean swell, rolling up, broke against the sides, 
where it lay like a monster asleep, motionless 
on the sea. 



164 Around the World 



CHAPTER XVI 

Three hours' steering in twenty-three days — Arrival at the Keel- 
ing Cocos Islands — A curious chapter of social history — A 
welcome from the children of the islands — Cleaning and paint- 
ing the Spray on the beach — A Mohammedan blessing for a 
pot of jam — Keeling as a paradise — A risky adventure in a 
small boat — Away to Rodriguez — Taken for Antichrist — The 
governor calms the fears of the people — A lecture — A convent 
in the hills. 

To the Keeling Cocos Islands was now only 
five hundred and fifty miles ; but even in this 
short run it was necessary to be extremely care- 
ful to keep a true course, else I should miss the 
atoll. 

While heading for the atoll the first unmis- 
takable sign of the land was a visit one morning 
from a white tern that fluttered very knowingly 
about the vessel, and then took itself off west- 
ward with a businesslike air in its wing. The 
tern is called by the islanders the *' pilot of 
Keeling Cocos." Farther on I came among a 
great number of birds fishing, and fighting over 
whatever they caught. My reckoning was up, 
and springing aloft, I saw from half-way up the 
mast cocoanut-trees standing out of the water 



in the Sloop ^' Spray ^^ 165 

ahead. I expected to see this ; still, it thrilled 
me. I slid down the mast, trembling under the 
strangest sensations ; and not able to resist the 
impulse, I sat on deck and gave way to my 
emotions. To folks in a parlor on shore this 
may seem weak indeed, but I am telling the 
story of a voyage alone. 

I didn't touch the helm, for with the current 
and heave of the sea the sloop found herself at 
the end of the run absolutely in the fairway of 
the channel. It couldn't have been beaten even 
in the navy ! Then I trimmed her sails by the 
wind, took the helm, and flogged her up the 
couple of miles or so abreast the harbor land- 
ing, where I cast anchor at 3.30 p.m., July 17, 
1897, twenty-three days from Thursday Island. 
The distance run was twenty-seven hundred 
miles as the crow flies. This would have been 
a fair Atlantic voyage. It was a delightful sail ! 
During those twenty -three daj^s I had not spent 
altogether more than three hours at the helm, 
including the time occupied in beating into 
Keeling harbor. I just lashed the helm and 
let her go ; whether the wind was abeam or 
dead aft, it was all the same : she sailed on her 
course. No part of the voyage up to this point, 
taking it by and large, had been so finished as 
this. 



1 66 Around the World 

As the sloop passed from the " ocean depths 
of deepest blue and entered the coral circle, 
the contrast was most remarkable. The brilliant 
colors of the waters, transparent to a depth of 
over thirty feet, now purple, now of the bluest 
sky-blue, and now green, with the white crests 
of the waves flashing- under a brilliant sun, the 
encircling . . . palm-clad islands, the gaps 
between which were to the south undiscernible, 
the white sand shores and the whiter gaps where 
breakers appeared, and, lastly, the lagoon itself, 
seven or eight miles across from north to south, 
and five to six from east to west, presented a 
sight never to be forgotten." 

The Keeling Cocos Islands, according to Ad- 
miral Fitzroy, R.N., lie between the latitudes 
of 11° 50' and 12° 12' S., and the longitudes of 
96° 51' and 96° 58' E. They were discovered 
in 1608-9 by Captain William Keeling, then in 
the service of the East India Company. The 
Southern group consists of seven or eight isl- 
ands and islets on the atoll, which is the skele- 
ton of what some day, according to the history 
of coral reefs, will be a continuous island. 
North Keeling has no harbor, is seldom visited, 
and is of no importance. The South Keelings 
are a strange little world, with a romantic his- 
tory all their own. They have been visited oc- 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 167 

casionally by the floating spar of some hurri- 
cane-swept ship, or by a tree that has drifted 
all the way from Australia, or by an ill-starred 
ship cast away, and finally by man. Even a 
rock once drifted to Keeling, held fast among 
the roots of a tree. 

The people of these islands were all rather 
shy, but, young or old, they never passed one 
or saw one passing their door without a salu- 
tation. In their musical voices they would say, 
''Are you walking ? " (" Jalan, jalan ? ") " Will 
you come along?" one would answer. 

For a long time after I arrived the children 
regarded the " one-man ship " with suspicion 
and fear. A native man had been blown away 
to sea many years before, and they hinted to 
one another that he might have been changed 
from black to white, and then returned in the 
sloop. 

One day I heard some of the children whis- 
per, "Chut-chut! " meaning that a shark had bit- 
ten my hand, which they observed was lame. 
Thenceforth they regarded me as a hero, and I 
had not fingers enough for the bright-eyed tots 
that wanted to cling to them and follow me 
about. Before this, when I held out my hand 
and said, " Come ! " they would shy off for the 
nearest house, and say *' Dingin ** (" It's cold "), 



1 68 A7^oiind the WoiHd 

or " Ujan ** (" It's going to rain "). But it was 
now accepted that I was not the returned spirit 
of the lost black, and I had plenty of friends 
about the island, rain or shine. 

One day after this, when I tried to haul the 
sloop and found her fast in the sand, the chil- 
dren all clapped their hands and cried that a 
crab was holding her by the keel ; and little 
Ophelia, ten or twelve years of age, wrote in 
the Spray's log-book : 

A hundred men with might and main 

On the windlass hove, yo ho ! 
The cable only came in twain ; 
The ship she would not go ; 
For, child, to tell the strangest thing, 
The keel was held by a great kpeting. 

This being so or not, it was decided that the 
Mohammedan priest, Sama the Emim, for a 
pot of jam, should ask Mohammed to bless the 
voyage and make the crab let go the sloop's 
keel, which it did, if it had hold, and she floated 
on the very next tide. 

On the 22d of July arrived H.M.S. Iphigenia, 
with Mr. Justice Andrew J. Leech and court 
officers on board, on a circuit of inspection 
among the Straits Settlements, of which Keel- 
ing Cocos is a dependency, to hear complaints 



in the Sloop '' Spray '^ 169 

and try cases by law, if any there were to try. 
They found the Spray hauled ashore and tied 
to a cocoanut-tree. 

The women at the Keelings do not do all the 
drudgery, as was the case in many places vis- 
ited on the voyage. It would cheer the heart 
of a Fuegian woman to see the Keeling lord of 
creation up a cocoanut-tree. Besides cleverly 
climbing the trees, the men of Keeling build 
finely modelled canoes. By far the best work- 
manship in boat-building I saw on the voyage 
was here. Many finished mechanics dwelt 
under the palms at Keeling, and I heard the 
hum of the band-saw and the ring of the anvil 
there from morning till night. 

These singular though small islands have 
been spoken of as the places where '* crabs eat 
cocoanuts, fish eat coral, dogs catch fish, men 
ride on turtles, and shells are dangerous man- 
traps," and where the greater part of the sea- 
fowl roost on branches, and many rats make 
their nests in the tops of palm-trees. 

My vessel having been refitted, I loaded her 
with the famous mammoth tridacna shell of 
Keeling, found in the bayou near by. And 
right here, within sight of the village, I came 
near losing ** the crew of the Spray " — not from 
putting my foot in a man-trap shell, however, 



170 Around the World 

but from carelessly neglecting- to look after the 
details of a trip across the harbor in a boat. I 
had sailed over oceans; I have since completed 
a course over them all, and sailed round the 
whole world without so nearly meeting a fa- 
tality as on that trip across a lagoon, where I 
trusted all to some one else, and he, weak mor- 
tal that he was, perhaps trusted all to me. The 
incident was a warning to me to be always vig- 
ilant. It is needless to say that I took no more 
such chances. 

Thirty pairs of tridacna shells taken in here 
were equal to three tons of cement ballast, 
which I threw overboard to make room. 

On August 22, the crab, or whatever else it 
Avas that held the sloop in the islands, let go its 
hold, and she swung out to sea under all sail, 
heading again for home. Mounting one or two 
heavy rollers on the fringe of the atoll, she 
cleared the flashing reefs. Long before dark 
Keeling Cocos, with its thousand souls, as sin- 
less in their lives as perhaps it is possible for 
frail mortals to be, was left out of sight, astern. 
Out of sight, I say, except in my strongest af- 
fection. 

The sea was rugged, and the Spray washed 
heavily when hauled on the wind. I took the 
course for the island of Rodriguez, and this 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 171 

brought the sea abeam. The true course for 
the island was west by south, one quarter 
south, and the distance was nineteen hundred 
miles ; but I steered considerably to the wind- 
ward of that to allow for the heave of the sea 
and other leeward effects. My sloop on this 
course ran under reefed sails for days together. 
By midnight of the fifteenth day out, a black 
object appeared where I had seen clouds in 
the evening. It was still a long way off, but 
there could be no mistaking this : it was the 
high island of Rodriguez. The patent log I 
found greatly in error on this run. The 
cause of the error I learned now was the work 
of some large fish, probably a shark, that had 
mistaken it for a fish and had proceeded to 
make a meal of it. Two out of the four blades 
of the wheel had been crushed. Indeed I 
found embedded in one of the brass blades the 
end of a tooth of a man-eater shark. It con- 
soled me somewhat for the loss of the log 
when I saw that the monster had damaged his 
mouth. Being sure of the sloop's position, I 
lay down to rest and to think, and I felt better 
for it. By daylight the island was abeam, 
about three miles away. It wore a hard, 
weather-beaten appearance there, all alone, far 
out in the Indian Ocean, like land adrift. The 



172 Around the World 

windward side was uninviting, but there was a 
good port to leeward, and I hauled in now 
close on the wind for that. A pilot came out 
to take me through the narrow channel into 
the inner harbor, but, poor fellow, he fell to 
leeward and missed his pilotage. 

It was a curious thing that at all of the isl- 
ands some reality was insisted on as unreal, 
while improbabilities were clothed as hard 
facts ; and so it happened here. The good 
abb6, a few days before, had been telling his 
people about the coming of Antichrist, and 
when they saw the Spray sail into the harbor, 
all feather-white before a gale of wind, and run 
all standing upon the beach, and with only one 
man aboard, they cried, " May the Lord help 
us, it is he, and he has come in a boat ! " The 
news went flying through the place. The gov- 
ernor of the island, Mr. Roberts, came down 
immediately to see what it was all about, for 
the little town was in a great commotion. One 
elderly woman, when she heard of my advent, 
made for her house and locked herself in. 
When she heard that I was actually coming up 
the street she barricaded her doors, and did 
not come out while I was on the island. Gov- 
ernor Roberts and his family did not share the 
fears of their people, but came on board at the 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 173 

jetty, where the sloop was berthed, and their 
example induced others to come also. The 
governor's young boys took charge of the 
Spray s boat at once, and my visit cost his Ex- 
cellency, besides great hospitality to me, the 
building of a boat for them like the one belong- 
ing to the Spray. 

My first day at this Land of Promise was to 
me like a fairy-tale. For many days I had 
studied the charts and counted the time of my 
arrival at this spot, as one might his entrance 
to the Islands of the Blessed, looking upon it 
as the terminus of the last long run, made irk- 
some by the want of many things with which, 
from this time on, I could keep well supplied. 
And behold, here was the sloop, arrived, and 
made securely fast to a pier in Rodriguez. On 
the first evening ashore, in the land of napkins 
and cut glass, I saw before me still the ghosts 
of hempen towels and of mugs with handles 
knocked off. Instead of tossing on the sea, 
however, as I might have been, here was I in 
a bright hall, surrounded by sparkling wit, and 
dining with the governor of the island ! 

On the following day I accompanied his 
Excellency and family on a visit to San Gabriel, 
the country among the hills. The good abb^ 
of San Gabriel entertained us all royally at the 



174 Around the World 

convent, and we remained his guests until the 
following day. As I was leaving his place, the 
abbe said, '' Captain, I embrace you, and of 
whatever religion you may be, my wish is that 
you succeed in making your voyage, and that 
our Saviour the Christ be always with you ! '*' 

Vegetables I found plentiful at Rodriguez. 
Of fruits, pomegranates were most abundant ; 
for two shillings I obtained a large sack of 
them, as many as a donkey could carry from 
the orchard. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 175 



CHAPTER XVII 

A clean bill of health at Mauritius — A newly discovered plant 
named in honor of the Spray^s skipper — A bivouac on deck — 
A warm reception at Durban — -Three wise Boers seek proof 
of the flatness of the earth — Leaving South Africa. 

On the i6th of September, after eight rest- 
ful days at Rodriguez, the mid-ocean land of 
plenty, I set sail, and on the 19th arrived at 
Mauritius, anchoring at quarantine about noon. 
The sloop was towed in later on the same day 
by the port doctor's launch, after he was satis- 
fied that I had mustered all the crew for inspec- 
tion. Of this he seemed in doubt until he 
examined the papers, which called for a crew 
of one all told from port to port, throughout 
the V03^age. Then finding that I had been 
well enough to come thus far alone, he gave 
me permission to land without further ado. 

A story got abroad in Mauritius that the 
Spray sailed with a superhuman crew, and one 
Mamode Hajee Ayoob, whom I employed as 
day watchman, could not be hired to watch 
nights, or even till the sun went down. "Sa- 
hib," he cried, " there is no need of it," and 
what he said was true. 



176 Around the World 

The kind people of Mauritius, to make me 
richer and happier, gave me free use of the 
opera house while I talked over the Spray s 
adventures. His Honor the mayor introduced 
me to his Excellency the governor from the 
stage. In this way I was also introduced again 
to our good consul, General John P. Campbell, 
who had already introduced me to his Excel- 
lency. I was becoming well acquainted, and 
was in for it now to sail the voyage over again. 
How I got through the story I hardly know. It 
was a hot night, and I could have choked the 
tailor who made the coat I wore for this occa- 
sion. The kind governor saw that I had done 
my part trying to dress like a man ashore, and 
he invited me to Government House at Reduit, 
where I found myself on the following day 
among friends. 

It was winter still off stormy Cape of Good 
Hope, but the storms might whistle there. I 
determined to see it out in milder Mauritius, 
visiting several places on the island. On one 
occasion, returning to the Spray hy way of the 
great flower conservatory near Moka, the pro- 
prietor, having only that morning discovered a 
new and hardy plant, to my great honor named 
it "■ Slocum," which he said Latinized it at 
once, saving him some trouble on the twist of 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 177 

a word ; and the good botanist seemed pleased 
that I had come. How different things are in 
different countries ! In Boston, Massachusetts, 
at that time, a gentleman, so I was told, paid 
thirty thousand dollars to have a flower named 
after his wife, and it was not a big ff ower either. 
I was royally entertained at many places in 
Mauritius, and, on the other hand, I made the 
attempt to entertain some of my friends on the 
Spray, On one occasion a party of seven 
young ladies ventured to sea in the sloop, sail- 
ing for a day and returning anchored over 
night in Tombo Bay. 

While at Mauritius the Spray was tendered 
the use of the military dock free of charge, and 
was thoroughly refitted by the port authorities. 
My sincere gratitude is also due other friends 
for many things needful for the voyage which 
they put on board, including bags of sugar 
from some of the famous old plantations. 

The favorable season now set in, and thus 
well equipped, on the 26th of October, the Spray 
put to sea. As I sailed before a light wind the 
island receded slowly, and on the following day 
I could still see the Puce Mountain near Moka. 
The Spray arrived next day off Galets, Re- 
union, and a pilot came out and spoke her. 
I handed him a Mauritius paper and continued 



178 Around the World 

on my voyage ; rollers were running heavily at 
the time, and it was not practicable to make a 
landing. From R6union I shaped a course di- 
rect for Cape St. Mary, Madagascar. 

The sloop was now drawing near the limits 
of the trade-wind, and the strong breeze that 
had carried her with free sheets the many 
thousands of miles from Sandy Cape, Australia, 
fell lighter each day until October 30, when it 
was altogether calm, and a motionless sea held 
her in a hushed world. I furled the sails at 
evening, sat down on deck, and enjoyed the 
vast stillness of the night. 

Was it lonely ? No ! The depths spoke. I 
had always the companionship of the universe 
and the brightest constellations in the heavens 
moving overhead now lent me thoughts. The 
blazing star Sirius, a constant companion in 
southern latitudes, always held me with in- 
terest. It was the brightest fixed star above 
the horizon. 

Then, there was the Southern Cross, which 
south of 34° south latitude, was always above 
the horizon, Orion, finest of all the constella- 
tions, and Argo, the ship, and the fiery Alde- 
baran. There is no Polar star in the South. 

October 31 a light east-northeast breeze 
sprang up, and the sloop passed Cape St. Mary 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 179 

about noon. On the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of 
November, in the Mozambique Channel, she ex- 
perienced a hard gale of wind from the south- 
west Here the Spray suffered as much as she 
did anywhere, except off Cape Horn. The 
thunder and lightning preceding this ga e were 
very heavy. From this point until the sloop 
arrived off the coast of Africa, she encountered 
a succession of gales of wind, which drove her 
about in many directions, but on the 17th of 
November she arrived at Port Natal. 

This delightful place is the commercial centre 
of the " Garden Colony," Durban itself, the 
city, being a spacious garden. The signalman 
from the bluff station reported the Spray fifteen 
miles off. The wind was freshening, and when 
she was within eight miles he said : *' The Spray 
is shortening sail ; the mainsail was reefed and 
set in ten minutes. One man is doing all the 
work." 

This item of news was printed three minutes 
later in a Durban morning journal, which was 
handed to me when I arrived in port. I could 
not verify the time it had taken to reef the 
sail, the minute-hand of my time-piece being 
gone. I only knew that I reefed as quickly as 
I could. 

The same paper, commenting on the voyage, 



i8o Around the World 

said: "Judging from the stormy weather 
which has prevailed off this coast during the 
past few weeks, the Spray must have had a 
very stormy vo3'age from Mauritius to Natal." 
Doubtless the weather would have been called 
stormy by sailors in any ship, but it caused the 
Spray no more inconvenience than the delay 
natural to head winds. 

The question of how I sailed the sloop alone, 
often asked, is best answered, perhaps, by a 
Durban newspaper. I would shrink from re- 
peating the editor's words but for the reason 
that undue estimates have been made of the 
amount of skill and energy required to sail a 
sloop of even the Spray's small tonnage. I 
heard a man who called himself a sailor say 
that '' it would require three men to do what it 
was claimed " that I did alone, and what I 
found perfectly easy to do over and over again ; 
and I have heard that others made similar non- 
sensical remarks, adding that I would work 
myself to death. But here is what the Durban 
paper said : 

As briefly noted yesterday, the Spray, with a crew of one 
man, arrived at this port yesterday afternoon on her cruise 
round the world. The Spray made quite an auspicious en- 
trance to Natal. Her commander sailed his craft right up 
the channel past the main wharf, and dropped his anchor 



171 the Sloop ''Spray'' i8i 

near the old Forerunner in the creek, before any one had a 
chance to get on board. The Spray was naturally an object 
of great curiosity to the Point people, and her arrival was 
witnessed by a large crowd. The skilful manner in which 
Captain Slocum steered his craft about the vessels which 
were occupying the waterway v/as a treat to witness. 

The Spray was not among- greenhorns in 
Natal. When she arrived off the port the pilot- 
ship, a fine, able steam-tug, came out to meet 
her, and led the way in across the bar, for it 
was blowing a smart gale and was too rough 
for the sloop to be towed with safety and so I 
simply followed, keeping to the windward 
side of the channel, so that I had room to keep 
off before the worst combers. 

Among other friends at Durban, I met Colo- 
nel Edward Saunderson, M.P., and his son, 
both famous yachtsmen. The Colonel sailed 
the Spray very neatly one day in Natal waters. 
Also I met here Lieutenant Tipping, of the 
Life-saving Service of Great Britain. These 
gentlemen all approved of the Spray. While 
at Durban I visited the principal colleges and 
schools, finding them all deepl}^ interested in 
the Spray s voyage around the world. 

But oddly enough here it was, too, that I 
met three men from Pretoria who came to the 
Spray for data to support a contention that 



1 82 Around the World 

the world is flat, President Kruger himself 
staunchly maintaining that theory. Having 
business on shore I left these men poring over 
the Spray s track on a chart of Mercator's pro- 
jection. They only said, " Behold it is flat" 
They seemed annoyed when I tried to assure 
them that they could not prove it by my ex- 
perience. The next morning I met one of 
the party in a clergyman's garb, carrying a 
large Bible, not different from the one I had 
read. He tackled me, saying, ** If you respect 
the Word of God, you must admit that the 
world is flat." " If the Word of God stands 
on a flat world — " I began. "■ What ! " cried 
he, losing himself in a passion. **Whatl" he 
shouted in astonishment and rage. The next 
day, seeing him across the street, I bowed and 
made curves with my hands. He responded 
with a level, swimming movement of his hands, 
meaning "the world is flat." A pamphlet by 
these Transvaal geographers, made up of argu- 
ments from sources high and low to prove 
their theory, was mailed to me before I sailed 
from Africa on my last stretch around the 
globe. 

However, education in the Transvaal is by 
no means neglected, English as well as Dutch 
being taught to all that can afford both. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' i8 



December 14, 1897, after having a fine time 
in Natal, I hoisted the Spray s boat in on deck 
and sailed with the seaward morning breeze 
which carried her clear of the bar and again 
she was off alone. 



184 Ayomid the World 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Rounding the " Cape of Storms " in olden time — A rough Christ- 
mas — The Spray ties up for a three months' rest at Cape Town 
— A railway trip to the Transvaal — President Kruger's odd 
definition of the Spray's voyage — His terse sayings — Distin- 
guished guests on the Spray — Cocoanut fibre as a padlock — 
Courtesies from the admiral of the Queen's navy — Off for St. 
Helena — Land in sight. 

The Cape of Good Hope was now the most 
prominent point to pass. From Table Bay I 
could count on the aid of brisk trade winds, 
and then the Spray would soon be home. On 
the first day out from Durban it fell calm, and 
I sat thinking about these things and the end of 
the voyage. The distance to Table Bay, where 
I intended to call, was about eight hundred 
miles over a rough sea. The early Portuguese 
navigators, endowed with patience, were more 
than sixty-nine years struggling to round this 
cape before they got as far as Algoa Bay, and 
there the crew mutinied. It was not until 
1497 that Vasco da Gama sailed successfully 
round the " Cape of Storms," as the Cape of 
Good Hope was then called, and discovered 
Natal on Christmas or Natal day; hence the 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 185 

name. From this point their way to India 
was easy. 

I experienced gales of wind sweeping round 
the cape, one occurring, on an average, every 
thirty-six hours ; but one gale was much the 
same as another, with no more serious result 
than, to blow the Spray along on her course 
when it was fair, or to blow her back somewhat 
when it was ahead. On Christmas, 1897, 1 came 
to the pitch of the cape. On this day the Spray 
was trying to stand on her head, and she gave 
me every reason to believe that she would ac- 
complish the feat before night. She began 
very early in the morning to pitch and toss 
about in a most unusual manner, and I have to 
record that, while I was at the end of the bow- 
sprit reefing the jib, she ducked me under water 
three times as a Christmas gift. I got wet and 
did not like it a bit : never in any other sea was 
I put under more than once in the same short 
space of time, say three minutes. A large Eng- 
lish steamer passing ran up the signal, '^Wish- 
ing you a Merry Christmas." I think the cap- 
tain was a humorist ; his own ship was throwing 
her propeller out of water. 

Two days later the Spray passed Cape Agu- 
Ihas in company with the steamship Scotsman, 
now with a fair wind. The keeper of the light 



1 86 Around the World 

on Agulhas exchanged signals with the Spray 
as she passed. At lonely stations hearts grow 
responsive and sympathetic, and even poetic. 
This feeling was shown toward the Spray along 
many a rugged coast, and reading many a kind 
signal thrown out to her gave one a grateful 
feeling for all the world. 

One more gale of wind came down upon the 
Spray from the west after she passed Cape Agu- 
lhas, but that one she dodged by getting into 
Simons Bay. When it moderated she beat 
around the Cape of Good Hope, where they 
say the Flying Dutchman is still sailing. The 
voyage then seemed as good as finished ; from 
this time on I knew that all, or nearly all, would 
be plain sailing. 

Here I crossed a sharp dividing -line of 
weather. To the north it was clear and set- 
tled, while south it was humid and squally, with 
treacherous gales. From hard weather the 
Spray ran into a calm under Table Mountain, 
w^here she lay quietly till the generous sun 
rose over the land and drew a breeze in from 
the sea. 

The steam-tug Alert, then out looking for 
vessels, came to the Spray off the Lion's Rump, 
and in lieu of a larger ship towed her into the 
roads, where she came to anchor off the city of 



in the Slopp ''Spray'* 187 

Cape Town, clear of the bustle of commerce. 
The sea being smooth, the good harbor-master 
sent his steam-launch to bring the sloop to a 
berth in dock at once, but I preferred to remain 
for one day alone, in the quiet of a smooth sea, 
enjoying the retrospect of the passage of the 
two great capes. On the following morning 
the Spray sailed into the Alfred Dry-docks, 
where she remained for about three months in 
the care of the port authorities, while I trav- 
elled the country over from Simons Town to 
Pretoria, being accorded by the colonial gov- 
ernment a free railroad pass over the land. 

I had a pleasant trip to Kimberley, Johannes- 
burg, and Pretoria, where I met Mr. Kruger, 
the Transvaal president, who said that the world 
was flat. His Excellency received me cordially 
enough ; but my friend Judge Byers, the gen- 
tleman who presented me, by mentioning that 
I was on a voyage around the world, unwit- 
tingly gave great offence to the venerable states- 
man, which we both regretted deeply. Mr. 
Kruger corrected the judge rather sharply, re- 
minding him that the world is flat. " You don't 
mean round the world," said the president; *'it 
is impossible ! You mean in the world. Im- 
possible ! " he said, '' impossible ! " and not an- 
other word did he utter either to the judge or 



1 88 Around the World 

to me. The judge looked at me and I looked 
at the judge, who should have known his 
ground, so to speak, and Mr. Kruger glowered 
at us both. My friend the judge seemed em- 
barrassed, but I was delighted ; the incident 
pleased me more than anything else that could 
have happened. It was a nugget of informa- 
tion quarried out of Oom Paul. 

Before going on my journey to the Trans- 
vaal Colonel Saunderson, who had arrived 
from Durban, invited me to Newlands Vine- 
yard, where I met many agreeable people. 
His Excellency Sir Alfred Milner, the Gov- 
ernor of Cape Colony, found time to come 
aboard with a party. The governor, after mak- 
ing a survey of the deck, found a seat on a box 
in my cabin ; Lady Muriel sat on a keg, and 
Lady Saunderson sat by the skipper at the 
wheel, while the colonel, with his kodak, away 
in the little boat, took snap shots of the sloop 
and her distinguished visitors. Dr. David Gill, 
astronomer royal, who was of another party of 
visitors, invited me to the famous Cape Ob- 
servatory. Later Dr. Gill presided at a talk 
about the voyage of the Spray : that alone 
secured for me a full house. This success 
brought me sufficient money for all my needs 
in port and for the homeward voyage. 







5 

O 

c 
"q. 

ri 

o 



in the Sloop ''Spray" 189 

After returning from Kimberley and Pre- 
toria, and finding the Spray all right in the 
docks, I retraced my steps to Worcester and 
Wellington, towns famous for colleges and 
seminaries, still travelling as the guest of the 
colony. 

On the plains of Africa I passed through 
hundreds of miles of rich but still barren land, 
save for scrub-bushes, on which herds of 
sheep were browsing. The bushes grew about 
the length of a sheep apart, and they, I thought, 
were rather long of body ; but there was still 
room for all. My longing for a foothold on 
land seized upon me here, where so much of it 
lay waste ; but instead of remaining to plant 
forests and reclaim vegetation, I finally re- 
turned to the Spray at the Alfred Docks, where 
I found her waiting for me, with everything in 
order, exactly as I had left her. 

I have often been asked how it was that my 
vessel and everything on board were not stolen 
in the various ports where I left her for days 
together without a watchman in charge. This 
is just how it was: The Spray seldom fell 
among thieves. At the Keeling Islands, at 
Rodriguez, and at many such places, a wisp of 
cocoanut fibre in the door-latch, to indicate 
that the owner was away, secured my vessel 



190 Around the World 

and my goods against even a longing glance. 
But when I came to a great island nearer home, 
stout locks were needed ; the first night in port 
things which I had always left on deck disap- 
peared, as if the sloop had been swept by a sea. 

A pleasant visit from Admiral Sir Harry 
Rawson of the Royal Navy and his family 
brought to an end the Spray's social relations 
with the Cape of Good Hope. The admiral, 
then commanding the South African Squadron, 
and now in command of the great Channel 
fleet, evinced the greatest interest in the little 
Spray and her behavior off Cape Horn, where 
he was not a stranger, notwithstanding the 
wide difference in our respective commands. 

On March 26, 1898, the Spray sailed from 
South Africa, the land of distances and pure 
air, where she had spent a pleasant and profit- 
able time. The steam-tug Tigre towed her to 
sea, giving her a good offing. The light morn- 
ing breeze, which scantily filled her sails when 
the tug let go the tow-line, soon died away 
altogether, and left her riding over a heavy 
swell, in full view of Table Mountain and the 
high peaks of the Cape of Good Hope. For a 
while the grand scenery served to relieve the 
monotony. One of the old circumnavigators 
(Sir Francis Drake, I think), when he first saw 



in the Sloop ''Spray''' 191 

this magnificent pile, sang, " 'Tis the fairest 
thing and the grandest cape I 've seen in the 
whole circumference of the earth." 

The view was certainly fine, but one has no 
wish to linger long in a calm to look at any- 
thing, and I was glad to note, finally, the short 
heaving sea, precursor of the wind which fol- 
lowed on the second day. Seals playing about 
the Spray all day, before the breeze came, 
looked with large eyes when, at evening, she 
sat no longer like a lazy bird with folded wings. 
They parted company now, and the Spray soon 
sailed the highest peaks of the mountains out 
of sight, and the world changed from a mere 
panoramic view to the light of a homeward- 
bound voyage. Her companions now for sev- 
eral days were porpoises and dolphins, and 
such other fishes as did not mind making a 
hundred and fifty miles a day. The wind was 
from the southeast ; this suited the Spray well, 
and she ran along steadily at her best, while I 
dipped into the new books given me at the 
cape, reading day and night. 

March 31 the fresh southeast w^ind had come 
to stay. The Spray was running under a single- 
reefed mainsail, a whole jib, and a flying-jib be- 
sides, set on the Vailima bamboo, while I was 
reading Stevenson's delightful " Inland Voy- 



192 Around the World 

age." The sloop was doing her work smoothly, 
hardly rolling at all, but just leaping along 
among the white horses, a thousand gambolling 
porpoises keeping her company on all sides. 
She was again among her old friends the flying- 
fish, interesting denizens of the sea. With out- 
stretched wings they sailed on the wind in 
graceful curves. One of the joyful sights on 
the ocean of a bright day is the continual flight 
of these interesting fish. 

And so the Spray reeled off the miles, show- 
ing a good run every day till April 11, which 
came almost before I knew it. Very early that 
morning I was awakened by the harsh quack 
of a booby, which I recognized at once as a 
call to go on deck; it was as much as to say, 
** Skipper, there's land in sight." I tumbled 
out quickly, and sure enough, away ahead in 
the dim twilight, about twenty miles off, was 
St. Helena. 

My first impulse was to call out, " Oh, what 
a speck in the sea! " It is in reality nine miles 
in length and two thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-three feet in height. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 193 



CHAPTER XIX 

In the isle of Napoleon's exile — A guest in the ghost-room at 
Plantation House — An excursion to historic Longwood — 
Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it — The Spray'' s ill luck 
with animals — Ascension Island. 

About noon the Spray came to anchor off 
Jamestown, and " all hands " went ashore to 
pay respects to his Excellency the governor of 
the island, Sir R. A. Sterndale. His Excellency 
remarked that it was not often, nowadays, that 
a circumnavigator came his way, and he cor- 
dially welcomed me, and arranged that I should 
tell about the voyage at Garden Hall and then 
at Plantation House — the governor's residence, 
which is in the hills a mile or two back. 

I was most royally entertained by the gov- 
ernor. I remained at Plantation House two 
days, and one of the rooms in the mansion, 
called the '' west room," being haunted, the 
butler, by command of his Excellency, put me 
up in that — like a prince. 

His Excellency one day was good enough to 
take me by carriage over the island heights, 
where the roads are hewn out of the cliffs of 



194 Around the World 

lava around mountain precipices and ravines. 
At one point in our journey the road winding 
among these formed a perfect W within the 
distance of a few rods. 

Returning from the governor's house to 
Jamestown, I drove with Mr. Clark to ** Long- 
wood," the home of Napoleon. A French con- 
sular agent in charge, keeps the place in good 
repair. The present occupant, born in France, 
was spending days of contentment with wife 
and grown-up daughters born on the island, 
where they had always lived, being well con- 
tent with their home. 

On the 2oth of April the Spray was again 
ready for sea. Before going on board I took 
luncheon with the governor and his family at 
the castle. Lady Sterndale had sent a large 
fruit-cake, early in the morning, from Planta- 
tion House, to be taken along on the voyage. 
It was a great high-decker, and I ate sparingly 
of it, as I thought, but it did not keep as I had 
hoped it would. I ate the last of it along with 
my first cup of coffee at Antigua, West Indies, 
which, after all, was quite a record. 

After luncheon a royal mail was made up for 
the Spray to be landed at the Island of Ascen- 
sion, a few days* sail farther along on my way. 
Then U. S. Consul Mr. Poole and his daughter 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 195 

paid the Spray a farewell visit, bringing a basket 
of fruit. It was late in the evening when I bore 
off for the west, leaving my new friends. Fresh 
winds filled the sloop's sails once more, and I 
watched the beacon-light at Plantation House, 
the governor's parting signal for the Spray, till 
the island faded in the darkness astern and be- 
came one with the night, and by midnight the 
light itself had disappeared below the horizon. 
When morning came there was no land in 
sight, but the day went on the same as days 
before, save for one small incident. Governor 
Sterndale had given me a bag of coffee in the 
husk, and Clark, an American, in an evil mo- 
ment, had put a goat on board, "to butt the 
sack and hustle the coffee-beans out of the 
pods." He urged that the animal, besides be- 
ing useful, would be as companionable as a 
dog. I soon found that my sailing-companion, 
this sort of dog with horns, had to be tied up 
entirely. The mistake I made was that I did 
not chain him to the mast instead of tying 
him with grass ropes less securely, and this I 
learned to my cost. Except for the first day, 
before the beast got his sea-legs on, I had no 
peace of mind. After that, he threatened to 
devour everything from flying-jib to stern-dav- 
its. He was the worst pirate I met on the 



196 Around the World 

whole voyage. He began by eating my chart 
of the West Indies, in the cabin, one day, while 
I was about my work forward, thinking that 
he was securely tied on deck by the pumps. 
There was not a rope in the sloop proof against 
that goat's awful teeth ! 

Next the goat devoured my straw hat, and 
so when I arrived in port I had nothing to 
wear ashore on my head. This last unkind 
stroke decided his fate. On the 27th of April 
the Spray arrived at Ascension, which is garri- 
soned by a man-of-war crew, and the boatswain 
of the island came on board. As he stepped 
out of his boat the mutinous goat climbed into 
it, and defied boatswain and crew. I hired 
them to land the wretch at once, which they 
were only too willing to do, and then he fell 
into the hands of a most excellent Scotchman, 
with the chances that he would never get 
away. 

It is, according to tradition, a most reassuring 
sign to find rats coming to a ship, and I had a 
mind to abide a knowing one that came on 
board at Rodriguez, but his behavior decided 
the matter against him. While I slept one 
night, my ship sailing on, he undertook to walk 
over me, beginning at the crown of my head, 
concerning which I am sensitive. I sleep lightly. 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 197 

Before his impertinence had got him even to 
my nose I cried "■ Rat ! " had him by the tail, 
and threw him out of the companionway into 
the sea. 

Ascension Island, where the goat was ma- 
rooned, lies in 7° 55' south latitude and 14° 25' 
west longitude, being in the very heart of the 
southeast trade-winds and about eight hundred 
and forty miles from the coast of Liberia. It is 
a mass of volcanic matter, thrown up from the 
bed of the ocean to the height of two thousand 
eight hundred and eighteen feet at the highest 
point above sea-level. It is a strategic point, 
and belonged to Great Britain before it got 
cold. In the limited but rich soil at the top of 
the island, among the clouds, vegetation has 
taken root, and a little scientific farming is car- 
ried on under the supervision of a gentleman 
from Canada. A few cattle and sheep are past- 
ured there for the garrison mess. Water stor- 
age is made on a large scale. In a word, this 
heap of cinders and lava rock is stored and 
fortified, and would stand a siege. 

Very soon after the Spray arrived I received 
a note from Captain Blaxland, the commander 
of the island, conveying his thanks for the royal 
mail brought from St. Helena, and inviting me 
to luncheon with him and his wife and sister at 



198 Around the World 

head-quarters, not far away. It is hardly neces- 
sary to say that I availed myself of the captain's 
hospitality at once. A carriage was waiting at 
the jetty when I landed, and a sailor, with a 
broad grin, led the horse carefully up the hill 
to the captain's house, as if I were a lord of the 
admiralty, and a governor besides ; and he led 
it as carefully down again when I returned. On 
the following day I visited the summit among 
the clouds, the same team being provided, and 
the same old sailor leading the horse. Arriving 
at the summit of the island, I met Mr. Schank, 
the farmer from Canada, and his sister, living 
very cosily in a house among the rocks, as snug 
as conies, and as safe. He showed me over the 
farm, taking me through a tunnel Avhich led 
from one field to the other, divided by an inac- 
cessible spur of mountain. Mr. Schank said 
that he had lost many cows and bullocks, as 
well as sheep, from breakneck over the steep 
cliffs and precipices. One cow, he said, would 
sometimes hook another right over a precipice 
to destruction, and go on feeding unconcern- 
edly. It seemed that the animals on the island 
farm, like mankind in the wide world, found it 
all too small. 

On the 26th of April, while I was ashore, 
rollers came in which rendered launching a boat 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 199 

impossible. However, the sloop being securely 
moored to a buoy in deep water outside of the 
breakers, she was safe, while I, in the best of 
quarters, listened to well-told stories among the 
officers of the island. On the evening of the 
29th, the sea having gone down, I went on 
board and made preparations to start again on 
my voyage next day. 

Early in the morning, April 30, the Spray, 
nothing loath, filled away clear of the sea-beaten 
rocks. The trade-winds, comfortably cool and 
bracing, sent her flying along on her course. 
On May 8, 1898, homeward bound, she crossed 
the track that she had made October 2, 1895, on 
the voyage out. She passed Fernando de Nor- 
onha at night, going some miles south of it, and 
so I did not see the island. 



200 Around the World 



CHAPTER XX 

In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil — All at sea 
regarding the Spanish-American War — An exchange of sig- 
nals with the battle-ship Oregon — Off Dreyfus's prison on 
Devil's Island — Reappearance to the Spray of the north star — • 
The light on Trinidad — A charming introduction to Grenada 
— Talks to friendly auditors. 

On the morning of May lo there was a great 
change in the condition of the sea. Strange 
and long-forgotten current ripples pattered 
against the sloop's sides in grateful music ; the 
tune arrested the ear, and I sat listening to it 
while the Spray kept on her course. By these 
ripples I was assured that she was now off St. 
Roque and had struck the current which sweeps 
around that cape. The trade-winds, we old 
sailors say, produce this current, which, in its 
course from this point forward, is governed by 
the coast-line of Brazil, Guiana and Venezuela. 

The trades had been blowing fresh for some 
time, and the current, now at its height, 
amounted to forty miles a day. This, added 
to the sloop's run by the log, made the hand- 
some day's work of one hundred and eighty 
miles on several consecutive days. I saw noth- 



171 the Sloop '' Spray ^' 201 

ing of the coast of Brazil, though I was not 
many leagues off and was always in the Brazil 
current. 

I did not know that war with Spain had been 
declared, and that I might likely meet the 
enemy right there, and be captured. Many 
had told me at Cape Town that war was inevi- 
table, and they said : " The Spaniard will get 
you ! The Spaniard will get you ! " To all this 
I could only say that, even so, he would not 
get much. Even in the fever-heat over the 
battle-ship Jl^aine disaster I did not think there 
would be war and reparation made by destroy- 
ing more human lives. Indeed, not being a poL 
itician, I had hardly given the matter a serious 
thought, when, on the 14th of May, just north 
of the equator, and near the longitude of the 
river Amazon, I saw first a mast, with the Stars 
and Stripes floating from it, rising over the sea 
astern, and then rapidly appearing on the ho- 
rizon, like a citadel, the Oregon ! As she came 
near I saw that the great ship was flying the 
signals " C B T," which read, "Are there any 
men-of-war about?" Right under these flags, 
and larger than the Spray s mainsail, so it ap- 
peared, was the yellowest Spanish flag I ever 
saw. It gave me nightmare some time after 
when I reflected on it in my dreams. 



202 Around the World 

I did not make out the Oregon s signals read- 
ily, for she was two miles away. Finally I read 
them and hoisted the signal '' No," for I had 
not seen any Spanish men-of-war ; I had not 
been looking for any. My signal, " Let us keep 
together for mutual protection," Captain Clark 
did not seem to regard as necessary. Perhaps 
my small flags were not made out; anyhow, 
the Oregon steamed on with a rush, looking for 
Spanish men-of-war, as I learned afterward. 
The Oregon's great flag was dipped beautifully 
three times to the Spray s lowered flag as she 
passed on. What sailor was ever honored so ? 
I pondered long that night over the probability 
of a war risk now coming upon the Spray after 
she had cleared all, or nearly all, the dangers 
of the sea, but finally a strong hope mastered 
my fears. 

On the 17th of May, the Spray, coming out 
of a storm at daylight, made Devil's Island, 
two points on the lee bow, not far off. The 
celebrated Captain Dreyfus was at that time 
a prisoner on the island. The wind was still 
blowing a stiff breeze on shore. I could clearly 
see the dark-gray buildings on the island as the 
sloop brought it abeam. No flag or sign of life 
was seen on the dreary place. 

On May 18, 1898, is written large in the 



in the Sloop '^ Spray ^^ 203 

Sprays log-book: ''To-night, in latitude 7° 13' 
N., for the first time in nearly three years I see 
the north star." The needle was pointing true 
north, for there was no variation of the compass 
along the route she was sailing now. The 
Spray on the day following made one hundred 
and forty-seven miles. To this I add thirty- 
fiv^e miles for current sweeping her onward. 
Of course, each night now as the Spray swept 
northward, the north star rose higher and 
higher in the sky. On the 20th of May, about 
sunset, the island of Tobago, off the Orinoco, 
came into view, bearing west by north, distant 
twenty-two miles. Later at night, while run- 
ning free along the coast of Tobago, I was 
startled by the sudden flash of breakers on 
the port bow and not far off. I luffed in- 
stantly offshore, and then tacked, heading in 
for the island. Finding myself, shortly after, 
close in with the land, I tacked again offshore, 
but without much altering the bearings of the 
danger. Sail whichever way I would, it seemed 
clear that if the sloop weathered the rocks at 
all it would be a close shave, and I watched 
with anxiety, while beating against the cur- 
rent, unwilling to chance the danger in trying 
to pass with so strong a set to leeward. So the 
matter stood hour after hour, while I watched 



204 Around the World 

the flashes of light thrown up as regularly as 
the beats of the long ocean swells, and always 
they seemed just a little nearer. That it was a 
coral reef, I had not the slightest doubt, — and a 
bad reef at that. Worse still, there might be 
other reefs ahead forming a bight into which 
the current would sweep me, and where I 
should be hemmed in and finally wrecked. I 
lamented the day the goat ate my chart. My 
anxiety increased while the sloop sagged to lee- 
ward, till finally from the crest of a wave I saw 
the cause of my alarm. It was the great re- 
volving light on the island of Trinidad, thirty 
miles away, throwing flashes over the waves, 
which had deceived me! The orb of the 
light now dipping on the horizon rose above 
the sea as the Spray drifted still nearer, 
and how glorious was the sight of it ! But, 
dear Father Neptune, as I live, after a 
long life at sea, and much among corals, I 
would have made a solemn declaration to that 
reef! 

My course was clear for Grenada, to which I 
now steered, having letters from Mauritius. 
About midnight of the 22d of May I arrived at 
the island, and cast anchor in the roads off the 
town of St. George, entering the inner harbor 
at daylight on the morning of the 23d, which 



in the Sloop ** Spray " 205 

made forty-two days' sailing from the Cape of 
Good Hope. It was a good run. 

On the 28th of May, the Spray sailed from 
Grenada, and coasted along under the lee of 
the Antilles, arriving at the island of Dominica 
on the 30th, where, for the want of knowing 
better, I cast anchor at the quarantine ground ; 
I was still without a chart of the islands, not 
having been able to get one even at Grenada. 
Here I not only met with further disappoint- 
ment in the matter, but was threatened with 
a fine for the mistake I made in the anchor- 
age. There were no ships either at the quar- 
antine or at the commercial roads, and I could 
not see that it made much difference where I 
anchored. But a negro chap, a sort of deputy 
harbor-master, coming along, thought it did, 
and he ordered me to shift to the other anchor- 
age, which, in truth, I had already investigated 
and did not like, because of the heavier roll 
there from the sea. And so instead of spring- 
ing to the sails at once to shift, I said I would 
leave outright as soon as I could procure a 
chart, which I begged he would send and get 
for me. 

" But I say you mus' move befo' you gets 
anyt'ing 't all," he insisted, and raising his 
voice so that all the people alongshore could 



2o6 Around the World 

hear him, he added, " An' jes' now ! " Then he 
flew into a towering passion when they on 
shore snickered to see the crew of the Spray 
sitting calmly by the bulwark instead of hoist- 
ing sail. " I tell you dis am quarantine," he 
shouted, very much louder than before. 
*' That's all right, general," I replied ; " I want 
to be quarantined anyhow." " That 's right, 
boss," some one on the beach cried, " that's 
right ; you get quarantined," while others 
shouted to the deputy to " make de white 
trash move 'long out o' dat." They were 
about equally divided on the island for and 
against me. 

The man who had made so much fuss over 
the matter gave it up when he found that 
1 wished to be quarantined, and he sent for an 
all-important half-white, who soon came along- 
side, starched from head to foot. He stood in 
the boat as straight up and down as a fath- 
om of pump-water — a marvel of importance. 
** Charts !" cried I, as soon as his shirt-collar 
appeared over the sloop's rail ; " have you any 
charts?" '* No, sah," he replied with much- 
stiffened dignity ; " no, sah ; cha'ts do'sn't 
grow on dis island." Not doubting the infor- 
mation, I tripped anchor immediately, as I had 
intended to do from the first, and made all sail 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 207 

for St. John, Antigua, where I arrived on the 
1st of June, having sailed with great caution in 
mid-channel all the way. 

The Spray, always in good company, now fell 
in with the port officers' steam-launch at the 
harbor entrance, having on board Sir Francis 
Fleming, governor of the Leeward Islands, 
who, to the delight of " all hands," gave the 
officer in charge instructions to tow my ship 
into port. On the following day his Excellency 
and Lady Fleming, along with Captain Burr, 
R.N., paid me a visit. The court-house was 
tendered free to me at Antigua, as was done 
also at Grenada, and at each place a highly in- 
telligent audience filled the hall to listen to a 
talk about the seas the Spray had crossed, and 
the countries she had visited. 



2o8 Around the World 



CHAPTER XXI 

Clearing for home — In the calm belt — A sea covered with sargasso 
— The jibstay parts in a gale — Welcomed by a tornado off Fire 
Island — A change of plan — Arrival at Newport — End of a 
cruise of over forty-six thousand miles — The Spray again at 
Fairhaven. 

On the 4th of June, 1898, the Spray cleared 
from the United States consulate, and her li- 
cense to sail single-handed, even round the 
world, was returned to her for the last time. 

On June 5, 1898, the Spray sailed for a home 
port, heading first direct for Cape Hatteras. 
On the 8th of June and just before noon, she 
crossed the track of the sun. His nearest ho- 
rizon changed from North to South at a fraction 
of a minute from noon while I stood, sextant in 
hand, waiting for the exact meridian altitude. 
It was a moment of thrilling interest to me. I 
had sailed many months and many, many thou- 
sands of miles with the sun bearing north each 
noon, reminding me that I sailed under alien 
skies. But at last all this was changed and 
everything reminded me of home-coming. To 
find my latitude this day I had only to inspect 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 209 

the Nautical almanac and there find the sun's 
declination, which at noon was 22° 54^ 

The Spray was booming joyously along for 
home now, making her usual good time, when 
of a sudden she struck the ^horse latitudes, and 
her sail hung limp in a calm. Evening after 
evening I read by the light of a candle on 
deck. There was no wind at all, and the sea 
became smooth and monotonous. For three 
days I saw a full-rigged ship on the horizon, 
also becalmed. 

Sargasso, scattered over the sea in bunches, 
or trailed curiously along down the wind in 
narrow lanes before, now gathered together in 
great fields, strange sea-animals, little and big, 
swimming in and out, the most curious among 
them being a tiny sea-horse which I captured 
and brought home preserved in a bottle. But 
on the 1 8th of June a gale began to blow from 
the southwest, and the sargasso was dispersed 
again in windrows and lanes. 

There was soon wind enough and to spare. 
The same might have been said of the sea. The 

* The Horse Latitudes lie between 20° and 30° North Latitudes, 
where calms often prevail during the summer months. 

Sailing vessels from New England with horses on board bound 
for the West Indies, in the early days, sometimes ran into these 
calms and there remained helpless till their supplies gave out and 
the horses became famished and had to be thrown overboard. 



2IO Around the World 

Spray was in the midst of the turbulent Gulf 
Stream itself and was jumping like a por- 
poise over the waves. As if to make up for 
lost time, she seemed to touch only the high 
places. Under a sudden shock and strain parts 
of her rigging gave out. First the main-sheet 
strap was carried away, and then the peak 
halyard-block was wrenched from the gaff. It 
was time to reef and refit, and so when ''all 
hands" came on deck I went about doing 
that. 

The 19th of June was fine, but on the morning 
of the 20th another gale came on, accompanied 
by cross-seas. I was thinking about taking in 
sail, when the jibstay broke at the mast-head, 
and fell, jib and all, into the sea. It gave me 
the strangest sensation to see the bellying sail 
fall, and where it had been to see so suddenly 
only space. However, I was at the bows, with 
presence of mind to gather it in on the first 
wave that rolled up, before it was torn or 
trailed under the sloop's bottom. I found by 
the amount of work done in three minutes' time 
or less that I had by no means grown stiff- 
jointed on the voyage. My health was still 
good, and I could skip about the decks in a 
lively manner, but could I climb? The great 
King Neptune tested me severely now, for the 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 211 

stay being gone, the unsteadied mast switched 
about like a reed, and was not easy to climb; 
but I managed it, and finally after some diffi- 
culty refitted the stay and had a reefed jib set on 
it, pulling for home. Had the Spray s mast not 
been well stepped, however, it would have gone 
by the board when the stay broke. Good work 
in the building of my vessel stood me always 
in good stead. 

On the 23d of June I was at last tired, tired, 
tired of recent baffling squalls and fretful cobble- 
seas. I had not seen a vessel for days and days, 
where I had expected the company of at least 
a schooner now and then. As to the whistling 
of the wind through the rigging, and the slop- 
ping of the sea against the sloop's sides, that 
was well enough in its way, and we could not 
have got on without it, the Spray and I ; but 
there was so much of it now, and this spell 
lasted so long ! At noon a winterish storm was 
upon us from the northwest. In the Gulf 
Stream, even thus late in June, hailstones were 
pelting the Spray, and lightning poured down 
from the clouds. By slants, however, I worked 
the sloop in toward the coast, where, on the 
25th of June, off Fire Island, she fell into the 
tornado which, an hour earlier, had swept over 
New York City with lightning that wrecked 



212 Around the World 

buildings and sent trees iiying about in splin- 
ters; even ships at docks had parted 'their 
moorings and smashed into other ships, doing 
great damage. It was the climax storm of 
the voyage, but I saw the unmistakable char- 
acter of it in time to have all snug aboard and 
receive it under bare poles. Even so, the 
sloop shivered when it struck, and she heeled 
over unwillingly ; but rounding to, with a sea- 
anchor ahead, she righted and faced the storm. 
In the midst of the gale I could do no more 
than look on, for what is a man in a storm like 
this? I had seen one electric storm on the 
voyage, off the coast of Madagascar, but it was 
unlike this one. Here the lightning kept on 
longer, and thunderbolts fell in the sea all 
about. Up to this time I was bound for New 
York ; but when all was over I rose, made sail, 
and hove the sloop round from the starboard 
to the port tack, to make for a quiet harbor to 
think the matter over ; and so, under easy sail, 
she reached in for the coast of Long Island, 
while I watched the lights of coasting-vessels 
which now began to appear in sight. 

The experiences of the voyage of the Spray^ 
reaching over three years, had been to me like 
reading a book, and one that was more and 
more interesting as I turned the pages, till I 




The Spray in Storm off New York. 



in the Sloop "'Spray'" 11% 

had come now to the last page of all, and the 
one more interesting than any of the rest. 

When daylight came I saw that the sea had 
changed color from dark green to light. I 
threw the lead and got soundings in thirteen 
fathoms. I made the land soon after, some 
miles east of Fire Island, and sailing thence be- 
fore a pleasant breeze along the coast, made 
for Newport. The weather after the furious 
gale was remarkably fine. The Spray rounded 
Montauk Point early in the afternoon ; Point 
Judith was abeam at dark ; she fetched Beaver- 
tail next. Sailing on, she had one more danger 
to pass — the harbor was mined. The Spray 
hugged the rocks along where neither friend 
nor foe could come if drawing much water, 
and where she would not disturb the guard- 
ship in the channel. It was close work, but it 
was safe enough so long as she hugged the 
rocks close, and not the mines. Flitting by a 
low point abreast of the guard-ship, which I 
knew well, some one on board of her sang out, 
" There goes a craft ! " I threw up a light at 
once and heard the hail, *' Spray y ahoy ! " It 
was the voice of a friend, and I knew that a 
friend would not fire on the Spray. I eased off 
the main-sheet, and the Spray swung off for the 
beacon-lights of the inner harbor of Newport. 



214 Around the World 

At last she reached port in safety, and there 
at I A.M. on June 27, 1898, cast anchor, after the 
cruise of more than forty-six thousand miles 
round the world, during an absence of three 
years and two months and two days. 

Was the crew well? Was I not? I had 
profited in many ways by the voyage. I had 
even gained flesh, and actually weighed a 
pound more than when I sailed from Boston. 
As for aging, why, the dial of my life was 
turned back till my friends all said, " Slocum is 
young again." And so I was, at least ten years 
younger than the day I felled the first tree for 
the construction of the Spray. 

My ship was also in better condition than 
when she sailed from Boston on her long voy- 
age. She was still as sound as a ntit, and as 
tight as the best ship afloat. She did not leak 
a drop — not one drop ! The pump, which had 
been little used at any time, had not been 
rigged at all since leaving Australia. 

The first name on the Spray s visitor's book 
in the home port was written by the one who 
said, " The Spray will come back." The Spray 
was not quite satisfied till I sailed her around 
to her birthplace, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 
farther along, I had myself a desire to return 
to the place of the very beginning whence I 



in the Sloop ''Spray'' 215 

had, as I have said, renewed my age. So on 
July 3, with a fair wind, she waltzed beauti- 
fully round the coast and up the Acushnet 
River to Fairhaven, where I secured her to the 
cedar spile which I had driven in the bank to 
hold her when she was launched. I could bring 
her no nearer home. 

If the Spray discovered no continents on her 
voyage, it may be that there were no more 
continents to be discovered ; she did not seek 
new worlds, or sail to rehearse dangers of the 
seas. To find one's way to lands already dis- 
covered is a good thing, and the Spray made 
the discovery that even the worst sea is not so 
terrible to a well-appointed ship. 

As in the building of that ship which was 
" pitched without and within," so in the recon- 
struction of the Spray everything was done, 
that I could do, to make her more and more 
seaworthy, and stoutly then, she accomplished 
her voyage and afforded me, after all, a de- 
lightful and profitable experience. 



END. 



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